Twilight: A Darkward Tale
by Reniefuwa
Summary: What if Twilight were actually...good? And about real vampires? A reinterpretation of the novel "Twilight" that follows the plot, told from the POV of "Darkward." The fun stuff happens when Bella's not around. If you like it, check my profile for sequels!
1. Chapter 1

Ninety years I've been essentially alone, and I'm envious; people all around me, and ironically alone. I look at my adopted father and mother and I see what they have, and I want that too. They are so devoted to each other, it's like they never want to be separated. More on her side, really. He was turned first, and she was his 'project.' At times it's almost as if he has a personal servant, she doesn't want to be away from him long. I desire that. I lust after that kind of obsession directed at me. I wonder if I can get it for myself. I asked my sire how to go about getting myself a companion like that.

"Are you sure, Edward? You know what my price is for something on this scale. I just had to sit back and watch events unfold, swooping in at the perfect time to claim my prize. You will have to make everything happen, and even then there are no guarantees."

"Aye, 'father,' I know." I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I would not think of that just now. "I want someone who has no choice but to be with me, my own constant companion."

Carlisle gave me a piercing look. "Just so I know you understand. Now listen carefully…"

I'm following his advice as closely as I can.

Chapter One

_Step 1: Get Noticed…_

I began by choosing my future companion. It was an easy choice to make. There was a new girl in town. Not new, exactly, but she never lived here until recently, so she was new to me. I had heard from various people around town that the sheriff's daughter would be coming to live with him on at least a semi-permanent basis. New kids are always the easiest to get.

I guess she was enough of a novelty that she captured the attention of several guys. She was pretty, but not gorgeous, decidedly average features, and she had a faint charisma about her-that is, people seemed drawn to her. I don't know why, she certainly didn't seem to encourage them. Still, I knew I would have to move in quickly, but at least initial contact would not be hard, because I never fail to get noticed, especially when I'm with my siblings.

My family and I are vampires. Immortal, undead, blood-sucking denizens of the night. By nature we are also predators, and our primary prey is humans. In the way of predators all over the world, we attract our prey; we're beautiful, our looks are magnetic, our gazes hypnotic. One vampire can easily draw double-takes, but when all of us are together the effect is devastating. Our prey is drawn to us, and she was no exception. My actions and machinations would drive my chosen one to the edge; they might even destroy her. But then, I'm a vampire. It's what I do, and in this case it's what I would have to do to make her mine.

Phase one: lunch time. This was the easy part. All I had to do was sit at a lunch table with my brothers and sisters, and the rest took care of itself. Everyone noticed us, because we were instantly attractive. I can say that without an ounce of vanity, but honestly, 'I'm so vain, I _know_ this story is about me.' I sensed her come into the room. I knew when she caught sight of us, caught sight of me, because I could hear her thoughts. I still haven't decided how to handle that one with her. She might think that it's some entertaining party trick or something. ("What am I thinking now? Now? How 'bout now?") or it might freak her out and cause her to stay far away from me. Either of those options would be extremely irritating and the opposite of my goal, so maybe I'll just pretend that I can't read _her_. Yeah, that should make her feel really special. _Normally I can read anyone's mind, but I just can't read you, darling. _ How's that for a snow job, eh?

Alice poked me in the side. "Hey Edward, she's looking over here. That's your girl, right?" I refused to look over at Bella-what's-her-name. After all, the point was to get _her_ to notice _me_, not the other way around. At this point I would have feigned indifference to everything around me, except that I didn't have to. I had been through the school lunch routine so many times that I already _was_ indifferent. Every event, every conversation had been done or said hundreds of times at dozens of other schools before.

Alice got up to leave, I suddenly remembered that I needed them to play along with me in my "romance."

"Hey guys, we can fill Alice in later, but I have to need your cooperation with something. Don't let her see you, but look over at the new girl; brown hair, staring at us like people who have never seen us before do."

One by one, Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper glanced over at her long enough to fix her image in their minds.

"She's my project. I need you guys to help me look 'good,' you know? The whole 'vampires resigned to their lot but trying to assimilate into normal society' act?"

"Sure, Edward," Rosalie said. "It's about time you found yourself someone. We're with you completely."

I smiled slightly. "Thanks. You guys are the best. Now, here's what I need you to do…"

Just as I finished telling them about the first stage of my plan, I felt a wave of pity and relief emanating from the girl, Bella. When I looked over at her, she was staring at me. When our gazes met, she quickly looked away. _Damn_! I'd hoped to begin hypnotizing her from day one. My control has been sporadic lately anyway, with "feeding time" coming up and all. I thought of the expression that would probably be on her face if she ever saw me feeding, and that brought a slow smile to my lips.

_Step Two: First Contact_

I went to my next class-Biology, and sat in my assigned seat. The seat beside it was empty, as always. Well, it was until _she_ walked in. As she walked down the aisle to talk with the teacher, my thoughts raced. I hadn't expected this! First Contact was supposed to be in the setting of my choosing, not spontaneous like this! I glared at her, fuming, pondering furiously. Now what do I do? I'm in no position to think creatively, I need to feed! Furthermore, since the seat next to mine was the only empty one, she would have to sit there, forcing me to improvise what I thought might be a good, appealing introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, Edward Cullen is not a happy camper.

She came and sat beside me, and I could smell her hair. She used strawberry-scented shampoo. _Mmm, strawberry-flavored human…shut up, brain! _God, I needed fresh blood. The whole period was a facsimile of a sham. I couldn't concentrate, I was hungry—no help from Miss Strawberry Shampoo—my thoughts were in a whirl from our unexpected meeting, and that damn girl kept looking over at me. She thought I thought she smelled bad. Seriously? Shallow much? And anyway, how dare she upset my plans from the outset?

The bell rang-_Thank God_-and I was gone. I needed to talk to Carlisle. And I needed a drink.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

I groaned in near ecstasy as the moose's thick warm blood flowed into my mouth and down my throat. I needed this. The whole family came on this hunt, and the moose was a lucky find, providing enough for everyone to have their fill for a week, at least.

"Nice take-down, Emmett."

"Yeah, I wasn't sure we would be able to kill this one. We underestimated this guy."

"Thanks. I was just as hungry as the rest of you."

We strolled back in the direction of home, sated, and left the carrion to the scavengers of the forest. Our preferred prey was humans, but large animals really were more convenient. After all, if too many humans turn up dead under very similar circumstances in the same place in a short time, people get suspicious and the self-proclaimed slayers come to town. That's the kind of aggravation you don't want to deal with every day, so my family tends to choose rural or semi-remote places to live, where there is abundant wildlife to feed our "specialized" appetites.

With my hunger problem taken care of, I could turn my full attention to my biggest and most enduring problem: Bella "Strawberry Shampoo" Swan. _**Carlisle, I need to talk to you**_, I sent to him. _**Go to my study when we get back, **_he thought back.

I sat glumly, slouched in the chair opposite Carlisle, annoyed. I had told him about everything that happened that first day. Five minutes ago. He thought it was hilarious. In fact, he was still laughing. Finally he'd had enough, and composed himself, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Ok, Edward, ok, god that was funny, all right, despite what you think, this is not a total disaster. You still have a chance. This is a better situation than it looks to you."

"How could it possibly be worse, Carlisle? I was hostile and decidedly unfriendly toward her, and she even caught me trying to switch out of her Biology class after I overreacted and freaked out like that. What can I salvage from this? I should just give up, I've barely begun and I've already lost."

He put both hands up in a "settle down" gesture. "Calm down, Edward. Now hear me out on this. Let's just think about this for a minute." He stood up and walked over to the bookshelf on my left, leaning his back against it and folding his arms across his chest. I sensed he was going into "lecture mode". "This is basic human psychology. Now, you told me that up until now everyone at school had been nice to her, and helpful, right?"

I stared sullenly straight ahead. "Yeah."

"And in fact, you were probably the only person she had any contact with who _didn't_ fawn over her, correct?"

"Yeah…?" I wondered where he was going with this.

"Well, that makes you _memorable_. All those friendly, smiling faces will blur into each other, but yours? You're the anomaly; the variable in the people she's met. You acted differently from everyone else. They were warm and friendly; you were cold and hostile; you made her uncomfortable. She's bound to notice that more than all the smiling faces around her. So, even if it's just to watch out for you, she will be _looking_ for you."

I looked at him then, stunned. He looked steadily back at me. It was impossible for one vampire to "dazzle" another, but even so I felt like Carlisle just had. For about a minute all I could do was stare at him, pondering what he had just said. In only a few sentences he had taken what I thought to be a dismal failure and turned it around so that I could see success behind it. It would have taken my breath away, if I had to breathe. I guess that's why he's the doctor.

"Close your mouth, Edward, you look like a cod fish."

I snapped my jaw shut. "So, what should I do now?"

He stroked his chin with one hand and looked off to the side. "Hmm…well, I think for now you should stay away from school for a couple of days. Let the initial shock of your first meeting wear off. If it's only a couple days she will still be looking for you." I relaxed, assured that I had not FUBARed the whole plan. Carlisle paused a moment, considering. "Now, what price should I charge for this bit of advice?" He walked over and stood behind my chair, bending over me. I tensed up. "It's not a step, but then, without my advice, you would have quit altogether, right…?" He ran a fingernail down the side of my face.

I closed my eyes, clenched my fists at my sides, and seethed. _Carlisle sometimes I really hate you…_

I came back to school on Friday.

"Hey Edward, think fast!" I heard just as a snowy missile pelted me in the cheek. It had snowed last night, so that meant a snowball fight! What, you think vampires and humans can't have fun doing the same things? I launched a snowball back at Jasper, then made a couple more to throw at Emmett and the girls. I was bombarded from all sides, and got a few good shots in myself. We all got soaking wet from melting snow, and soon the entire schoolyard was a snowball battle royale arena. I was having so much fun I forgot about Bella entirely…until the school bell rang. I didn't feel quite as good after that, but I knew I wouldn't have to do anything until at least lunch, so I was able to concentrate until then.

I knew as soon as she entered the lunchroom. Emmett had just recounted an incident in his biology class involving frogs and a girl's cleavage, so I was still laughing from that image. When we had settled down, I deliberately looked at her, carefully keeping any anger out of my expression. Since I was focused on her, I heard the conversation between her and her friend, j-something.

"Edward Cullen is staring at you. *giggle*" Ugh, teenage girls.

"He doesn't look angry, does he?" Bella asked.

"No. Should he be?"

"I don't think he likes me."

"The Cullens don't like anybody…well, they don't notice anybody enough to like them. But he's still staring at you."

"Stop looking at him."

A boy came over to their table and interrupted them then, and I stopped paying attention.

_Step Three: Be Friendly-like_

I walked into Biology and sat down in my seat at the table we had to share. _Next time be friendly and polite_ Carlisle had said. _It should unbalance her. That's what you need to do now._

"Hello."

She looked up at me, startled.

"My name is Edward Cullen. I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."

I could sense her thoughts were in a whirl. Good, everything going according to plan so far.

"H-how do you know my name?"

I chuckled. "Oh, I think everyone knows your name. The _whole town's_ been waiting for you to arrive." _Because nothing ever happens around here, so that's what qualifies as news._

She grimaced.

"No, I meant, why did you call me Bella?

I was confused. I thought that was what she wanted to be called. "Do you prefer Isabella?"

"No, I like Bella. But I think my dad must call me Isabella behind my back—that's what everyone here seems to know me as."

I paused. "Oh." Uh oh. Did I choose a mentally deficient girl, or am I just that unobservant? I haven't heard anyone call her that, except the teachers, and I imagine even most of them call her Bella if she told that's what she prefers.

Thankfully the teacher started class, and we had to do some activity about the stages of mitosis. I discovered something about Bella Swan then. The girl has a competitive streak. Or maybe she's just a cocky bitch. Whichever it was, I was relieved. Maybe she wasn't so deficient after all. We finished well before everyone else, because she had done this before and I was around when mitosis was first observed, so she started staring intently at me. It was a little unnerving. I was considering "dazzling" her when she suddenly spoke.

"Did you get contacts?"

The question confused me. "No."

"Oh. I thought there was something different about your eyes."

Oh crap! I totally forgot that our eyes change color when it's almost time to feed again. I feigned indifference and turned away so she couldn't see any possible emotion in my eyes. That was something for the family to consider. We should get contacts, so our eyes appear the same color all the time.

I turned the questions around to Bella and how she ended up in Forks. She seemed hesitant, so this time I didn't hesitate to "dazzle" her, which got the first question answered. After that she spoke on her own, and I could form a better picture of her situation. The short version is she moved here after her mother married a minor league ball player, and her mother wanted to stay with him when he moved around, which he did pretty often. Bella didn't want to, so opted to move here with her dad, whom she apparently despises. So, the reason she's here, in a place she'd rather not be, is her own damn fault and now she's unhappy about it. Bad for her, good for me, good show, old chap!

I wasn't sure what to do now. Flirting casually wasn't really my thing. I was really more into the short hunt kind of events. I couldn't think of anything more to say, so I just sat, tense and awkward, until the end of class.

I noticed her driving that old truck after school. She almost took out a little Toyota. I laughed at the amusing image that conjured. I wish she _had_ wrecked that little car. That would have been hilarious.

*The scene with Edward and Carlisle will become clear in later chapters (that's my intention, anyway.)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The next school day prompted a step that I didn't expect to take for weeks yet, and became:

_Step Four: White Knight_

I was supposed to rescue the "damsel in distress" (even if I had to create the situation myself), and the opportunity fell right in my lap-almost.

Bella had just parked her monster of a truck in the parking lot, and was examining the tires, when a loud screeching caused everyone to look up from whatever they were doing. A van had slipped on the ice and was careening across the parking lot, straight towards-Bella! Ooooh, no, I did _not_ capitulate to Carlisle just to watch my project die prematurely now! I raced toward Bella with a speed only a vampire could match, and threw her to the ground. Her head hit the pavement with a rather satisfying smack. I fleetingly hoped I hadn't caused her brain damage. The van wasn't done spinning, though. It curled around and came straight toward us again. Quickly as I could, I moved Bella's legs out of the way-it wouldn't be as much fun if she were paralyzed-and braced myself to stop the van, my hands outstretched in front of us. The van finally stopped.

When Bella finally looked up, the first thing she saw was my handsome face, the face of her rescuer. I monopolized on the situation. "Bella? Are you all right?" I asked, my voice full of concern.

"I'm fine."

"Be careful. I think you hit your head pretty hard." I really was concerned, as anyone would be over the possible injury of one of their prized possessions.

Bella's eyes cleared a little bit, and a realization hit her. "How did you get over here so fast?"

"I was standing right next to you, Bella." _After I moved four cars down in about one second, but technically I was for a technically measurable period of time. _I put on my best innocent expression and attempted to dazzle her, (I was a little shaken up as well) willing her to accept my explanation. One or the other must have worked, because she fell silent. Just then the onlookers swept in, worried and eager to help the two almost-victims of vehicular assault.

"You were over there," Bella said. I guess my "dazzle" didn't work as well as I'd hoped. "You were by your car."

_Come on, Edward, make up an excuse, something believable, likely, or at least something she will accept for now. Something creative and intelligent! _"No, I wasn't." _DAMN IT! _

She seemed ready to tell the world what happened and scream that there was something off about me, but I managed to get her to keep quiet by promising to tell her later. The ambulance arrived, and they let me refuse a stretcher, as I was apparently undamaged. Bella tried to refuse, too, but when I told them she hit her head they made her stay still and wear a neck brace. The sight of her apparent embarrassment made me inwardly smile. I could hardly contain myself all the way to the hospital. Meanwhile, Bella couldn't stop thinking about how events could possibly have happened as they did, unless she was actually crazy. That thought made me want laugh all over again.

I had to wait until the medical personnel finished their barrage of tests on Bella before I could see her. When I walked in the room I saw Bella lying on the bed, eyes closed. Tyler was on the bed next to her.

"Is she sleeping?" I directed my question Tyler.

Bella opened her eyes when I spoke and glared at me. I didn't blame her.

"Hey, Edward, I'm really sorry—" Tyler began.

I held up my hand. "No blood, no foul," I said, flashing him a smile. _Denied, loser!_ I sat on the edge of his bed, deliberately ignoring him. Only two people in the room mattered right now—well, one and a half. "So, what's the verdict?" I asked Bella.

"There's nothing wrong with me, but they won't let me go. What about you? Why aren't you confined to a bed like us?"

"It's all who you know." I smiled at her. "But don't worry, I came to spring you." Just then Carlisle walked in. I studiously watched her reaction. It was rather fascinating. If she did not just have an orgasm on seeing him she definitely got instantly hot and bothered. Being a vampire is awesome.

In the midst of our exchange about Bella's health and paperwork things, Carlisle slipped a little. "It sounds like you were extremely lucky."

"Lucky Edward happened to be standing next to me." She stared hard at me. I had already filled Carlisle in on what happened, and he responded by…getting uncomfortable. Way to go, "dad."

He turned to Tyler, ostensibly to check on his condition as well, but he was being evasive, and Bella picked up on it.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

I stepped back, unwilling to engage in a confrontation at this time. "Your father is waiting for you."

"I'd like to speak with you alone, if you don't mind." She led me out into the hallway.

"What do you want?" I glared at her, hoping to frighten her into silence. No such luck.

"You owe me an explanation."

"I saved your life—I don't owe you anything." My voice was harsh.

She flinched. "You promised." She sounded like a petulant child.

"You hit your head—you're not thinking clearly."

"There's nothing wrong with my head."

Nnngg. "What do you want from me, Bella?"

"I want to know the truth. I want to know why I'm lying for you."

"Well, what do you _think_ happened?" I challenged.

She immediately launched into a string of sentences telling her version of what happened. She seemed to get more and more frantic as she warmed to her story.

I made an expression that I hoped was startled amusement. "You think I lifted a van off you?" I made as if I would begin laughing at any moment. She nodded sharply. "No one will believe that, you know. Can't you just thank me and get over it?"

"Thank you," she grudgingly offered. We glared at each other a moment. "Why did you even bother?"

_Come on, Edward, say something suave, cool, clever-oh, forget it. _"I don't know." I left.

_Step Five: Get with the Stalking_

Bella came home later that evening, and went to bed early. Neither she nor Charlie noticed me perched on the roof directly above her bedroom, probably akin to some vulture waiting for its food to die.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

_Step Six: Invade Her Dreams_

She had a dream of an unidentified person walking away from her. Hmm—might as well be me. Behold, Edward! The Night Stalker! Also, make sure that in this dream she can never catch her now-identified object of wanting—me. The dream woke her in the middle of the night, and kept her awake for a while. I started doing this every night. I needed her to become obsessed with me. I could do it more easily through dreams, especially when the person in question is superstitious about dreams having meaning. I didn't know if Bella was, but it couldn't hurt to try.

_Step Seven: Back Off, then Pounce! _

Give her room. Avoid her as much as possible when she's awake, be totally indifferent, for awhile. I didn't know how the hell this was supposed to help, but Carlisle had been right so far, so I went with it. Her musings over this made me laugh. Her conclusion was that I wished the van had killed her! Ahahaha! That kills me! She tried saying 'hi' to me in Biology once, but after the cool attitude I gave her, she tried to ignore me as well.

A couple days later Mike came to her desk, insinuating that he was hoping she would ask him to the dance, and she turned him down flat. That made my day. Maybe this step would work after all. Then she did something totally unexpected. She told Mike she was going to Seattle that weekend. I looked intently at her. She pulls a big trip out of town from left field just to avoid a dance? How warped is this girl? I think I like it.

I decided to talk to her near the end of class again. "Bella?"

"What do you want, Edward?"

"Sorry for being so rude, but we really should stay away from each other."

"What?"

"Just sayin', it's better if we weren't friends." I said flippantly.

"Well, you should have thought of that earlier. You could have saved yourself all this regret."

"Regret? For what?"

"For saving me from that stupid van, of course!"

I was stunned. "You think I regret saving your life?"

"I _know_ you do!"

Whoa. When Bella goes to extremes, she really finds the extremes. Her death is the last thing I want right now.

She turned and picked up her books. I'm sure she intended to stomp out in a huff, but she tripped gracelessly on her way out the door. Dissolving into laughter was not the best thing to do right now, so I fought it down and helped her with her books. Can't let her forget about me, after all.

Just to add further insult to injury, I went to intercept her at the truck before she could leave for the day. I found her turning down Eric for the dance, as well. She was trying to be "diplomatic." I guess diplomacy means lying a lot. I couldn't help chuckling as he walked away. Bella heard me, and she angrily got in her car.

I moved to intercept her with the Volvo. _Ah-ah-ahh, Bella, road rage never does anybody any good._ I'm in high school, I'm allowed to be immature. I waited for my family, deliberately holding up traffic at the same time. Traffic hold-up presented an opportunity for Bella's favorite admirer: Tyler. He got out of his car and walked up to Bella's window. I could see that this just aggravated her more. It was very gratifying. I could hear bits and pieces of their conversation. Tyler was asking her to ask him to the spring dance! Oh, this was entertaining! He's an opportunist, I'll give him that. Bella couldn't go anywhere, a true captive audience. She told him twice that she would be out of town that night (makes me wonder if she really will leave, just to complete the illusion). When he realized she was serious, he indicated that he still held out hope for having her as a prom date.

Oh, that pissed her off so much! The look on her face was priceless! Her eyes briefly widened, her nostrils flared, and she stared very hard at my smiling face. Her thoughts were painted clearly on her face.

I think it's a good thing my siblings arrived just then, because I really think she would have rammed that monster of a truck into the rear of our car, and I do _not_ want to try and explain that to Carlisle. He might make me pay for it, and not with money…

Just to keep me in the front of her mind, I crept up to her again the next morning in the parking lot before school. I noticed that she parked as far away from the Volvo as she could, as if that would help. When I suddenly appeared in front of her, she jumped, startled.

"How do you _do_ that?"

"Do what?" I smiled.

"Appear out of thin air like that."

I shrugged, all innocence. "Bella, it's not my fault if you are exceptionally unobservant." I carefully enunciated the last two words, baiting her.

She scowled and appeared to lose track of her thoughts, and changed the subject.

"Why the traffic jam last night? I thought you were supposed to be pretending I don't exist, not irritating me to death."

What a sarcastic bitch. Still, one good turn…

"That was for Tyler's sake, not mine. I had to give him his chance." I was slowly failing to hold back my laughter.

"You…" Bella sputtered, obviously unable to come up with the proper word for how annoying and despicable she found me at that moment. I thought about offering some suggestions, but that would probably cause her to leave prematurely, and I didn't want that to happen. I continued.

"And I'm not pretending you don't exist,-"

"So you _are_ trying to irritate me to death? Since Tyler's van didn't do the job?"

Wow, Bella, it must be nice to have the world revolve around you. Melodramatic, much? Now _she_ was irritating _me_. I was glaring at her now, but I no longer cared.

"Bella, you are utterly absurd."

She clenched her fists. I think she actually thought of hitting me. You'd think I had just grievously insulted her mother, the way she reacted. She abruptly turned her back on me and began walking away. Turned her back. On me. The _nerve_ of that girl. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. Violence at this point would definitely be counter-productive. When I had my self-control back, I hurried after her. When I caught up to her, I apologized, turning on the charm.

"I'm sorry, that was rude." No response. So I tried another tack. "I'm not saying it isn't true, but it was rude to say it, anyway."

"Why won't you leave me alone?"

"I wanted to ask you something, but you sidetracked me." An idea had struck me.

"Fine then. What do you want to ask?"

I spoke slowly, deliberately drawing out my words, leading her to the wrong conclusion. "I was wondering if, a week from Saturday—you know, the day of the spring dance—"

She whirled, facing me. "Are you trying to be funny?"

I smiled, ever-so-polite, taunting her. "Will you please allow me to finish?" She clasped her hands in front of her (_to prevent losing control?_) "I heard you were going to Seattle that day, and I was wondering if you wanted a ride."

She looked at me as if I'd just spoken a foreign language. "What?"

Was she hard of hearing? "Do you want a ride to Seattle?"

"With who?" She seemed genuinely perplexed. _It seems I've picked myself a real winner, here. Why am I doing this again? Oh well, it's not like I have anything better to do right now. Speak slowly, Edward, the girl's a little slow. _"Me, obviously."

_"Why?"_

If there wasn't so much at stake I would have smacked my forehead with my palm. Does she always ask so many questions? _Come on Edward, give a plausible reason, _don't_ screw this up. "_Well, I was planning to go to Seattle in the next few weeks, and, to be honest, I'm not sure if your truck can make it." That last part was true, it was something of a rattle-trap.

"My truck works just fine, thank you very much for your concern." Her words were clipped, but had lost some of their vehemence.

I intercepted her again, facing her. "But can your truck make it there on one tank of gas?"

She stopped. "Honestly, Edward. I can't keep up with you. I thought you didn't want to be my friend."

"I said it would be better if we weren't, not that I didn't want to be." _I don't, but that's really beside the point._

"Oh, thanks, now that's _all_ cleared up." _There's that heavy sarcasm again. Sheesh, can she speak to _anyone_ without being condescending? I haven't seen it yet. _

I reiterated, "It would be more…_prudent_ for you not to be my friend. But I'm tired of trying to stay away from you, Bella." That last part was true. And teens hate being prudent, I've noticed.

"Will you go with me to Seattle?" I asked again. I really didn't want to lose this one, so I nailed her with my mesmerizing "dazzle stare" until she nodded assent. It really was unfair of me, but I don't really do "fair." It's not in my nature.

I turned away with a parting shot, "You really _should_ stay away from me. I'll see you in class," and walked away.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I thought Bella could use a little more unbalancing, so I arranged a surprise at lunch: I sat in another chair. Earth-shattering, I know, but she definitely noticed, visibly disappointed when she didn't see me at our usual table. When J-something* drew her attention to me, I summoned her over to me with a beckoning finger and a wink, with a little telepathic pressure for good measure. I was pleased when she came right over, making some excuse to her friend. That took less pushing than I thought it would. _Gooood doggie._

She stood uncertainly behind the chair across from me.

"Why don't you sit with me today?" I suggested. She sat almost immediately, which pleased me even more. _Sit. Stay. Good girl. Here's a treat! _I could sense her thoughts were in a scramble, and that was just too fun to witness, so I sat silently until she was finally able to form a coherent sentence.

"This is different." If I had been drinking something, I would have spit it out. That was her grand opener? 'This is different'? From the Upper Midwest, is she? I needed some filler.

"Well…" _Ok, now what? The truth? Sometimes the truth can be a powerful tool. Why not? _"I decided as long as I was going to Hell, I might as well do it thoroughly."

She just stared at me a minute or two. "You know I don't have any idea what you mean."

I smiled. "I know." _You will, eventually. _Sensing some particular thoughts, I glanced quickly over to another table. "I think your friends are angry with me for stealing you."

"They'll survive." What admirable self-centeredness. She would make an excellent vampire, but I needed to make sure she was bound to _me_ when she was finally turned.

"I may not give you back, though." I like this wordplay, especially when she thinks I'm being facetious or maybe just metaphorical. And I'm not. "You look worried."

"No, surprised, actually…what brought all this on?"

"I told you—I got tired of trying to stay away from you. So I'm giving up."

"Giving up?"

"Yes—giving up trying to be good." Gag!-as if I were even trying. "I'm just going to do what I want now, and let the chips fall where they may." I said this last wistfully, as if it were a dream I had; as if I were sharing it with her and asking her to join me in a celebration of fate…or something.

I noticed she kept looking up at me, and then down at her lemonade bottle. I could see where her thoughts were going, but I wanted her to tell me. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm trying to figure out what you are." The words came out in a rush, as if they were surprised out of her.

"Having any luck with that? What are your theories?" Batman and Spiderman whizzed along the surface of her thoughts, almost making me laugh out loud. Those thoughts discomfited her. I tilted my head endearingly. "Won't you tell me?"

She shook her head. "Too embarrassing."

"That's really frustrating, you know."

Her eyes narrowed as she glared at me. "No. I can't imagine why that would be frustrating at all—just because someone refuses to tell you what they're thinking, even if all the while they're making cryptic little remarks specifically designed to keep you up at night wondering what they could possible mean…now, why would that be frustrating?" I flinched a little, momentarily startled by the forcefulness of her tone. She wasn't finished. "Or better, say that person also did a wide range of bizarre things—from saving your life under impossible circumstances one day to treating you like a pariah the next, and he never explained any of that, either, even after he promised. That, also, would be _very_ non-frustrating."

Now she was making me angry. "You've got a bit of a temper, don't you?"

"I don't like double standards." Whoa. _The bitch has bite._ This could be bad. If this attitude of hers gets any stronger, she may not be the perfect subject, or even a _good_ one, after all.

We both suddenly noticed that the cafeteria was almost empty.

She stood up. "We're gonna be late."

"I'm not going to class today; it's healthy to ditch now and then." _I have to go set up White Knight #2 and help you ditch class too, even if you don't know it. _

After she left, I climbed to the roof of the school and made my way across until I was directly over the Biology classroom. I knew they were doing blood tests to determine blood types, and I saw a crucial opportunity to be her 'savior' once again; and obviously I couldn't take a test like that. My blood just wouldn't be normal.

As soon as the teacher took out the first needle, I made "suggestions" in Bella's head. She had just a touch of hemophobia; I tried to amplify it.** _Oh God, no, not blood, even the sight of blood makes me sick… _and continued on that train of thought until the teacher asked if she was ok. Mike volunteered to take her to the nurse (of course) and it was time for me to make another appearance. I watched as Bella stopped outside, out of sight of the classroom, and lay down on the sidewalk. Why did she do that? Wouldn't the nurse's office, with its, you know, beds and stuff, be more comfortable? Oh well, easier for me.

I called out to her as I approached the scene. "What's wrong—is she hurt?" _Sound concerned, Edward, use your "concerned voice." _

Mike sounded worried. "I think she's fainted. I don't know what happened, she didn't even stick her finger."

I leaned down next to her. "Bella. Can you hear me?"

"No," she groaned, "Go away." _Aw, poor little girl doesn't want me to see her weakness._

"I was taking her to the nurse, but she wouldn't go any farther," Mike said defensively.

"I'll take her," I responded. "You can go back to class." It was a plain dismissal on my part, but Mike was having none of it.

"No, I'm supposed to do it."

I didn't feel like arguing anymore, so decided to settle it by carrying her to the nurse myself. I lifted her off the sidewalk; she was pretty light, and I'm stronger than your average human, so it was easy.

Her eyes flew open in surprise, and I could tell my action irritated her.

I grinned down at her. "You look awful." I love having a captive audience.

"Put me down!"

"So, you faint at the sight of blood." She looked like she was trying not to vomit, thanks to my continued mental pressure. "And not even your own blood, at that." I was enjoying this.

After the nurse had finished her ministrations and left the room, Bella said something that startled me. "…You were right." _Wait, what? Ok, I can work with that._

"I usually am—but about what in particular this time?"

"Ditching is healthy."

"You scared me there. I thought Newton was dragging your dead body off to bury it in the woods." _Don't blame him. I've thought of doing that a time or two._

"Ha ha." Again with the sarcasm. I'm sensing a theme with her. "How did you see me? I thought you were ditching."

"I was in my car, listening to a CD." _Hey, my improv is getting better._ She was surprised by my 'normal response.' Why? Aren't mysterious goth guys allowed to listen to music? Whatever.

Just then Mike came in escorting another student, who looked even worse than Bella had. This student was actually bleeding. The muscles around my mouth twitched. I could smell his blood, out in the open air. I was almost salivating from thirst. Since Bella was looking a lot better, the nurse was willing to let her go, and I hustled us both out of there as fast as I could. Mike met us outside, and confirmed some kind of beach trip with Bella, and said he'd see her at Gym. She groaned. What does this girl have against going to gym? Body image issues, anyone? Still, it was another opportunity.

"I can take care of that. Go sit down and look pale." Time to go after a slightly older woman. I sauntered up to the nurse's counter and turned on the charm. "Ms. Cope? Bella has gym next hour, and I don't think she feels well enough. Actually, I was thinking I should take her home now. Do you think you could excuse her from class?"

"Do you need to be excused, too, Edward?" Wow, how often does this lady get a date? I didn't even have to "dazzle" her. Getting us both out of class was easy enough. Now I just had to secure the ride home. I asked Bella, "Can you walk, or do you want me to carry you again?" I knew it pissed her off.

"I'll walk."

On our way to the parking lot she asked me, "So are you going? This Saturday, I mean?"

"Where are you all going, exactly?"

"Down to La Push, to First Beach."

I looked away and gave the sky a wry grin. "I really don't think I was invited." She tried to 'officially' invite me, but I have my own reasons for not going there. I got distracted reflecting on those reasons, getting angry about them even, when I abruptly noticed that Bella was no longer beside me. What the hell?! Didn't I _just say_ that I would take her home? _There she is_.

I grabbed her jacket by the collar and yanked her back toward me. "Where do you think you're going?"

She looked at me with confusion. "I'm going home."

"Didn't you hear me promise to take you safely home? Do you think I'm going to let you drive in your condition?"

"What condition? And what about my truck?" she whined.

"I'll have Alice drop it off after school." I turned and walked again toward the Volvo, nearly dragging Bella along by her jacket. I was being rough with her, and any normal girl would be terrified. I could be sabotaging my "mission" with this little display, but I no longer cared. She was pissing me off, and I needed to feed.

"Let go!" I ignored her, and we finally made it to the car, where I nearly shoved her against the passenger door. "You are so pushy!"

_Whatever, Princess. _"It's open," I said as I got in the driver's side.

"I am perfectly capable of driving myself home!"

_This is not the time to grow a backbone, brat. _I rolled down the passenger window. "Get in, Bella." There was a hard tone in my voice that I had never used with Bella before. She was thinking about her chances of sprinting over to her truck before I could catch her. We both knew they weren't good.

"I'll just drag you back." _And we both know how fast I am. Don't cross me. _She grudgingly got in, darting wicked glances my way to let me know what she thought of this treatment. "This is completely unnecessary." I ignored that too.

One the way to her place, she actually started talking to me about music. What the-? Was she somewhere else when my whole manhandling thing was going on? Is she ADD? Whatever, I'm not gonna complain. I didn't know how I was supposed to defuse this situation, but it looks like she decided she would. Eventually, right as we pulled up to her house, we got around to talking about her mom.

"My mother…she's very young for her age. I think Phil makes her feel even younger. At any rate, she's crazy about him." She shook her head.

"Do you approve?"

"Does it matter? I want her to be happy…and he is who she wants."

"That's very generous…I wonder, would she extend the same courtesy to you, do you think? No matter who your choice was?" _Or who chose you. _

"I-I think so. As long as it was no one too scary."

"And what's your definition of too scary? Do you think that _I_ am scary?" She seemed to struggle to answer, so I leaned in close to her and whispered, "Are you frightened of me now?"

"No," she answered quickly, and we both knew she was lying. _Wrong answer. That means I can up the ante. _She hurried on, "So, will you tell me about your family? It's gotta be more interesting than mine." _You have no idea. _

She asked me questions, and I gave some cliché answers, I guess stuff about how much I love them or something, just to keep the image up, and then she asked me about my siblings.

I was getting bored, so I made a show of looking at the time. "My brother and sister, and Jasper and Rosalie, for that matter, are going to be quite upset if they have to stand in the rain waiting for me."

"Oh, sorry, I guess you have to go."

"Have fun at the beach…good weather for sunbathing." That last part was kind of sarcastic.

"Won't I see you tomorrow?"

"No. Carlisle and I are starting the weekend early."

"What are you going to do?"

I could feel my body tensing up. "We're going to be hiking in the Goat Rocks Wilderness, just south of Rainier."

"Oh, well, have fun." She certainly sounded chipper. Yeah, fun. Right.

"Oh, will you do something for me this weekend? Try not to fall into the ocean or get run over or anything, all right?" That would shoot my plan all to Hell.

She obviously didn't like the implication that she was doing these things on purpose. "I'll see what I can do," she said angrily, then slammed the car door and ran up to the house. I stared grimly ahead, contemplating the upcoming "camping trip."

* Note: J-something is Jessica; Edward the Creep just can't be bothered to learn the names of many people.

** Note: Fixed one of Meyer's plot points! Boo-yah! It makes no sense for her to show signs of being an extreme hemophobic here, but then it _never shows up again. _Thus, it must come from an outside source.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Warning! This chapter is intense, and includes hunting/feeding on a deer, and is what gives this story its lighter mature rating.

This chapter has no Bella/Edward interaction, and Edward is far away, so I'm giving exposition and making stuff up as I go along-especially about the "camping trip"…

Carlisle and I didn't drive to Rainier, as Bella assumed we would. Why would we, after all? We can generally move as well and as fast as any SUV, with the option of going cross-country, to boot. So we ran all the way there. Why were we going? Well, for one thing, hunting. We didn't want to thin out the herds around Forks too much. That might alert the wrong people that there were predators other than normal animals hunting the forests. And let me tell you, life becomes a lot harder when a vampire hunter/slayer starts sniffing you out and breathing down your neck. There is always the option of buying pig's blood from a butcher shop in a pinch, but that really is just a last resort; kind of like eating Saltines when you want Oreos, or bologna when you want steak. It's just not the same.

Another reason we occasionally go out-of-area is because of the local competition. Not the animals, though we have to consider them, too, but the local wolf pack. The WERE-wolf pack. The pack has a direct connection with the Quileutes, the local Indian tribe. I'm not entirely sure what it entails, but I do know that most, if not all, of the members of the pack come from the Quileute tribe. They live near Forks, and the reservation includes most of the area around La Push. The legend about the feud between werewolves and vampires is true, but we have a tense truce with this pack. Our two groups made the truce for similar reasons. One reason is to keep some measure of control over ourselves and our territory, and the other is to avoid those who would hunt us. Silver bullets don't hurt just werewolves. Human bodies showing up in curiously large numbers would bring the kind of attention we just don't need, especially in the age of phone cameras 24-hour sensationalist news coverage. So in the interest of self-preservation, we keep a "live-and-let-live" attitude. Simply put, it's a truce of convenience.

The group Bella would be going with was large enough to attract the attention of the Quileutes, maybe enough that they would send a sort of "welcoming party." The fact that Bella would go to La Push and likely meet with members of that tribe bothered me. It bothered me plenty, because if any of them were werewolves, they would undoubtedly smell me all over her. Then they would likely tell her what I am, one of their "cold ones," in an effort to warn her, and I'm not sure at this point how she would take that information. I had already made some arrangements regarding that possibility, but that didn't make it any easier to think about. _Oh, well, if it happens, it happens, and I'll cross that proverbial bridge when I come to it._

A third reason we go away is related to why the Cullens are absent from school on nice, sunny days. We don't like sunlight. We consider it our natural enemy. It doesn't hurt us, not physically, anyway. As far as vampires are concerned, however, it's worse; much worse. We can endure more physical pain than any human alive, but sunlight effectively emasculates us. You see, direct sunlight makes vampire skin…sparkle. Yeah. Like a pretty crystal. _Like_a tacky, out-dated '80's disco ball. Like a drag queen exhibitionist at a "Gay Pride" parade. There is not enough sarcasm to express how much this condition disgusts us. We Cullens call this condition proof positive that there is a god…and that he/she/it detests vampires with a loathing that surpasses even that of the hateful father facing the villain who raped and killed his only daughter; an abhorrence blacker than a Catholic's sins; reviles them more than any Hatfield hated any other McCoy. That is how much this deity hates vampires; so much that we have skin that **sparkles**. Thus, we are creatures of the night. In the same position, wouldn't _you_ be? Or wouldn't you at _least_ live in a perpetually cloudy place?

My musings stopped when Carlisle suddenly halted, inhaling slowly, searching for the scent of prey on the wind. I stopped beside him and did the same. We both caught the scent at the same time, and our heads swiveled to the left. Our sharp vampire ears were able to pick out the sound of deer hooves softly treading on the forest floor. With just a quick glance at each other, we knew what we would do. I crept quickly and quietly on a straight line toward the deer, while Carlisle moved off toward the side. We would run a kind of "interception play," where I would give chase and Carlisle would tackle it from the side.

As soon as it saw me, the deer took off, bounding away through the forest. My fingernails lengthened into claws; my canines grew an inch; the vampire was ready to hunt. I kept pace with the deer, even through sudden directional changes, as it turned on a dime right, left, abruptly left and back at the same time so I wound up skidding several feet on loose leaves before I was able to give chase again; this deer was good at running. I got in a couple good slashes along its flank, injuring it, but not fatally. I was having fun; I wanted it to last. The deer turned and bounded through a meadow that opened up on the right.

I sped up, intending to kill it before it reached the trees on the other side. Suddenly Carlisle appeared from the right, tackling the deer and removing it from my path. His attack was so unexpected that I forgot I was still running so fast, and slammed right into a tree on the edge of the meadow. The impact made my ears ring, and I think my nose got out of joint. I was dazed and woozy, but that quickly passed. I turned and walked back to where Carlisle was, fixing my nose as I went. I winced a little as I popped it back into place, but the pain faded quickly enough. Carlisle already had his mouth fastened to the deer's neck when I approached. _That bastard started without me. _Okay, not a total bastard. He did leave me the heart.

When we had finished draining the blood from the vicinity of the neck, Carlisle moved down to its hindquarters, and I punched through the deer's ribs and grasped its heart, then yanked the whole thing out of the chest cavity. I held it over me, tilted my head, and squeezed, catching the red dripping blood in my mouth. This is one reason I wear so much black. By the time I finished with the blood that had pooled where the heart had been, there were no large reserves of blood left in the deer. We left the rest to the scavengers.

When we finished with the deer, we went and found a stream to clean ourselves off. Butchering animals is a messy business, after all. I took off my shirt to wash it, and Carlisle did the same. The water briefly ran tinted red from the excess blood that came off. We laid our shirts on a nearby rock to let them dry, and washed our hair and faces in the stream. I turned my back to Carlisle and shook my hair out-and abruptly remembered why I was trying to avoid doing just that, but I was too late.

His arms slithered around my shoulders and met in the middle of my chest, just below my throat. The front of his body was almost, but not quite, touching the back of mine. I could feel on my back, or imagined that I could feel, the residual heat in his stomach from the blood that we had both recently consumed. My spine stiffened, my eyes snapped wide, and at that moment all I could do was to stare straight ahead. I knew what he was going to do, and he knew I knew, and that only heightened his anticipation, because he knew I didn't really want it. He also knew that I wouldn't say no. I could barely gasp out his name. "Car…lisle…"

"Come on, Edward. You knew this was coming way back then." He leaned his head forward over my left shoulder until his chin was all but resting on it, his face on the same level as mine. He turned his head and murmured in my ear, "I told you my price for showing you how to bind a person inexorably to you. You know you don't _have_ to pay it, but you also know you stand the best chance with me guiding you every step of the way. A girl like her doesn't come along every day, and who knows when you will meet another ideal specimen?" I looked at the ground, teeth and fists clenched. "Say it, Edward. Tell me what our deal was."

My body trembled from trepidation. I took a deep breath, eyes intently studying the dirt, twigs, and underbrush of the forest. "Until…until I bind her to me, I will…be your toy."

"Yeeees, and?"

I forced myself to continue. "And…and for every step you lead you me through, we have…a 'playdate.'" I had to practically spit out the last word. It wasn't like this would permanently scar me, but I still had in essence made a deal with the devil, and it was time to pay again. I turned just my eyes to look at him, barely catching his eyes at the corner of my vision. "You really are a perverted, warped son of a bitch, aren't you, old man?" I asked in disgust.

He jerked me back against him and chuckled. "Of course I am, 'son.'" His hands splayed over my chest. "But then, so are you. We are vampires…."

I turned around and deliberately willed myself to relax into his cruel embrace…_I will have you for myself, Bella. This has gone too far to quit now, so I promise I will make you mine. No one else shall have you; I shall destroy anyone who tries, and I fully intend to make you pay for this and the other 'playdates,' darling_…and finished the phrase he started. "…It's what we do." I closed my eyes, and Carlisle took it from there. "Come along, my little sex toy…"

*Note: "Oh no!" Oh yes! I went there! Edward/Carlisle "Camping Trip" homoerotica! I apologize if you're fond of the Cullens, but if this was going to work, I had to demonize all the vampires, not just Edward. Since vampires do symbolize the spectrum of human vices, it seemed like the kind of thing the 'elder' vampire would do. He wouldn't give away this kind of guidance for free, and he would like extorting and blackmailing people, as would the other vampires. Any actions to the contrary are an act to give the appearance of being different, or to assimilate into human society.

**To any yaoi fangirls out there: I hope you have good imaginations, because this is as much as I will describe. Partly because I don't particularly want to write any kind of erotic scenes, and partly because even if I did, I wouldn't be able to post it on anyway. Besides, there are other sites that concentrate on that kind of prose, and they do it much better than I can. Find one of those and substitute the names.

This chapter was harder than the others. I've never read a description of vampires hunting down anything except humans, so I kind of had to go with wolves or other pack carnivores. Plus, aside from the exposition, I had to make up everything! Hope you enjoyed it!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

We finally returned. It was night, and I perched on her roof in order to again enter her "dreamland" to help maintain her obsession with me. She was in the forest at the beach, in her dream. She tried to move toward the beach, but then one of the Quileutes appeared, took her hand, and tried to lead her back deeper into the forest.

"Jacob? What's wrong?" So his name is Jacob.

"Run, Bella, you have to run!" he whispered. He seemed terrified of something.

"This way, Bella!" That was one of the boys crushing on Bella.

"Why?" Bella asked, still struggling against Jacob's pull.

Jacob yelped and let go of her, then fell to the ground and started twitching as Bella looked on. What was this? "Jacob!" she screamed. Jacob was suddenly replaced by a reddish-brown wolf with black eyes. He was a werewolf. This seemed as good a time as any to enter her dream. She yearned to go the ocean for some reason, so that's where I decided to be. It seems even dream-werewolf-boy could sense the presence of a vampire, because he turned and pointed to where I had inserted myself, shoulders bristling, and growling.

"Bella, run!" That would be the same school boy as before. She still didn't turn away.

I made my dream image step out from the trees, lithe and dangerous. I held up one hand and imperiously beckoned her to me. The wolf growled next to her. She took a step toward me, and I smiled, showing my pointy sharp teeth.

"Trusst me," I said, slightly hissing the word "trust." I guess I couldn't help but try to emphasize the "scary" part of my nature, at least in her dreams. After all, that was just a figment of her imagination, and dreams disappear with the light of dawn, right? Right. Excuse me while I go **sparkle** in the dawn light. Dream-Bella took another step toward me, right before wolf-Jacob leapt at me, intent on ripping out my throat with his teeth.

"NO!" I yelled, and heard the echo of her scream as well. Good, that meant she didn't hear me. That was creepy; it seemed so real. For a moment there, I was in fear for my continued existence. That's ridiculous, though, it was just a dream, and not even my dream, at that. Psh, whatever.

The dream bothered Bella enough that she couldn't get back to sleep, so she signed on to the internet while eating breakfast. She found a site for "all about vampires" and read what documentation had been posted. Even without skimming her thoughts, I could quote them almost verbatim: _Throughout the vast shadowy world of ghosts and demons there is no figure so terrible, no figure so dreaded and abhorred, yet dight with such fearful fascination as the vampire…If there is in this world a well-attested account, it is that of the vampires…with all that, who is there who believes in vampires? _Who, indeed?

I 'watched' as she ran through the list of vampire legends from around the world. The _Danag_, who supposedly lived in harmony with humans until one fateful day when a human woman cut her finger and a _Danag_ sucked on her wound, then accidentally bled her dry. The Hebrew _Estrie_ and the _Upier_ from Poland. Bella focused on the _Varacolaci_, described as an undead being who could appear to be a beautiful, pale-skinned human, and the Slovak Nelapsi, a creature strong enough and fast enough to massacre an entire village in one hour. Her final selection, the one I was counting on, was the _Stregoni benefici. _The entry stated: "An Italian vampire, said to be on the side of goodness, and a mortal enemy of all evil vampires."

She felt such relief upon reading it that I was glad I had added that entry before leaving with Carlisle. Yeah, I wrote that in; I posted it. A "species" of vampire that is, to my knowledge, completely made up. But I had to give her a reason to at least consider that I was a "good" vampire-like that's even possible. She eventually came to the conclusion that nothing she had read matched her observations-apparently she was looking at a different vampire or something. I mean, seriously, _none_ of what she'd read? Hadn't she ever even _heard_ of vampires before now? She apparently was educated in a convent or something. Weird girl.

Then suddenly, from nowhere, she remembered all the _**wrong**_ myths about vampires: sunlight kills us, we sleep in coffins (like that would even be _comfortable_) and only came out at night (lest we **sparkle**). Her thoughts caused her to become restless, so she went outside to walk in the woods behind her house. I followed discreetly, watching her, and she was so preoccupied with her thoughts she didn't notice. She wrestled predictably with what she had recently learned. _Were_ my family and I vampires? If we were, what did it mean? What should she do?

She came to the conclusion that if I was a vampire, then she should stay away from me; just tell me to leave her alone, and let that be the end of any relationship between us. A jolt of panic ran through me when I caught that thought. I couldn't let it end here, now, not after what I had already done, not after the "camping trip." I shuddered to think of it. I tried something I don't do very often: I projected my emotions into Bella's mind, hoping she would mistake them for her own. The intensity of them must have shocked her. She physically jerked just after I projected, and quickly thought of a different alternative. She even convinced herself that she was not afraid of me, though her dream brought her terror; she was afraid _for_ me.

When I read that thought, I had to leave. I ran swiftly away from her until I was at least two miles away. There was no way I could hold back my laughter at the thought that she afraid for me. She should have been afraid for herself. It's a good thing I don't have to breathe, because I think I would have literally perished from laughter that day.

The next day had its own opportunities for sadistic fun.

It was sunny.

I didn't go to school. Well, not in the traditional sense. I lazed about on the roof, sparkling, skimming the surface thoughts of Bella's mind.

Bella looked for me, of course, and couldn't find me, not at lunch, not in Biology. Each time she failed, I projected emotions at her, and she took the bait every time. Sadness, despair, everything a wannabe "emo kid" aspires to. She was pouting and moping by the end of the day, and no fun to be around. Perfect.

She puttered around at home for a while after school, and eventually dragged an old blanket out on the lawn to lie on while she read a novel. And I kept watching her, wondering when she would get paranoid. All the books frustrated her (they all had names that sounded too much like Edward-ha!) She finally gave up and did some improvised sun tanning, flaring her hair out above her head, rolling up her sleeves, and thinking about the heat from the sun soaking into her skin, her eyelids, her cheeks, her lips, her arms, her neck, her head lolling back, exposing that pale nec—gah, am I drooling? My body was actually quivering with anticipation. Without quite meaning to, my thoughts had turned toward feeding—specifically, feeding on Bella. I had to look away before I did something very un-"good-vampire"-like. Focus, Edward.

Nothing else interesting happened that night, and I just didn't feel like spying the next day. I did know Bella would go on a "girls' night out to Port Angeles that night, though, so I stuck around, after draining a rabbit. After my "moment" yesterday, I needed to feed on _something_.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I followed Bella et al. to Port Angeles where they were going dress shopping. Hey, it was either that or be subjected to more "quality time" with Carlisle. Ugh. Also, I'm actually starting to get the hang of this stalking thing. In some of my goofier moods I think I might get some spy gear. Next I might invest in a trench coat, maybe take pictures and send them in the mail…or perhaps not. That might be little too creepy.

I perched on the roof again, feeling suspiciously like Batman or one of any number of comic book vigilantes, when I picked up a strong thought about Tyler. "Do you think that if I ran him over with my truck he would stop feeling guilty about the accident?" Hahahaha! Oh, this girl is priceless! That's like saying, "The sooner you fall down, the sooner I stop stabbing you with my dagger!" or "Oh, a headache? Here, let me take your mind off it-with a hammer to your foot!" I'm sure I was giggling like an idiot for a good five or ten minutes over that one.

After dress shopping, Bella went one direction for some reason and the others peeled off toward the boardwalk. She was kind of wandering aimlessly through town, looking for a bookstore apparently. In time I got bored just watching her; it took forever for her to get anywhere. Uh-oh. She saw the car I drove here in. Can't let her put two and two together, yet. Looking around, I spied a small group of young men a couple streets away. _Ooh, they could liven things up a little. _I sent a telepathic suggestion their way. _**Check out this sweet little girl coming your way-isn't she luscious? Don't you want to…? **_I deliberately left that thought hanging, and let them fill in the rest, as that would make the thought more believable in their minds.

When they got close, one of them called out to her. Bella attempted to avoid them, mumbling some reply, and walked on. The guys followed, doing their own stalking. They split up, two following behind her, two circling around the block to block her escape to the side. They managed to herd her into a blind alley. I could feel her fear; see the images in her mind of what might happen to her because of her own stupidity and the dark intentions of these men.

I decided to intercede before anything really interesting happened, because I didn't really want her damaged…by anyone else. I went back to the car and drove to where they were. Geez, all this time and they _still_ haven't gotten around to doing anything to her? What a bunch of pansies. Oh well, it was too late now to pretend I was not there, so I sped over, almost running down one of the would-be…whatevers, I don't even know what they intended to do. What lame-brains. I worked up a good "angry attitude" before opening the door and ordering Bella inside. She practically leaped inside the car, and I sped away with squealing wheels.

I tore through town for a couple minutes, not really toward any place in particular, just trying to get a good "road rage" vibe going, when she finally noticed that I wasn't Mr. Happy Sparklepants.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"No." I said curtly, then drove out of town and stopped somewhere along the road. "Bella? Are you all right?"

"Yes."

I needed a minute to decide how to proceed. "Distract me, please."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Just prattle about something unimportant until I calm down."

"Um…I'm going to run over Tyler Crowley tomorrow before school?"

The image was so unexpected and so funny to me that I couldn't completely control my reaction. My mouth twitched briefly into a smile. "Why?"

"He's telling everyone that he's taking me to prom—either he's insane or he's still trying to make up for almost killing me, and he thinks prom is somehow the correct way to do this. So I figure if I endanger his life, then we're even, and he can stop trying to make amends. I don't need enemies and maybe Lauren would back off if he left me alone…"

She kept chattering about it, I think. I really couldn't tell you, because my inner Edward was dying from laughter, and it took all my concentration to keep the expression off my face. _Ahahahaha *gasp* hahahahaha *gasp* ahaha…oh, Bella, do you even know how hilarious you sound now? "I don't need enemies so I'm planning to try to KILL MY CLASSMATE so he'll stop crushing on me so this one girl that I don't talk to anyway or even NOTICE most of the time won't hate me anymore."_

She stopped talking, and seemed to be waiting for me to answer. I thought of an appropriate comment. "I heard about that."

"You did?" She went on, more to herself than for me. "If he's paralyzed from the neck down, he can't go to the prom, either."

I closed my eyes as inner Edward lost it all over again. _Pffff-hahahahaha! Bella, your sadism is priceless!! "No, killing is too good for him, I'm going to paralyze him and drastically reduce his quality of life-while he's still a teenager, so he can still live a good eighty years if he's healthy, and not even be able to feed himself!" What a sadistic bitch! I think I'm actually starting to like this girl!_

She looked at me with a little concern. "Better?"

"Not really." I could barely get the words out, trying not to laugh out loud.

"What's wrong?" She was practically whispering.

"Sometimes I have a problem with my temper, Bella." _To be specific, I have to keep it all the time lately, and it takes a lot of effort. _"And I think it wouldn't be helpful for me to turn around and hunt down those…" I paused for dramatic effect. Maybe she thought I was holding naughty words. I was thinking one of them might make a nice meal. A full Edward is a happy Edward, after all…. "Or so I'm trying to convince myself."

"…Oh." She looked at the dashboard clock. "Jessica and Angela will be worried. I was supposed to meet them."

_And since when do you care about-? Aw, hell with it. _I turned on the car and drove back into town. I tracked her friends through my telepathy, and found them just coming out of La Bella Italia, a nice little Italian restaurant I have been to before. I parallel-parked the Volvo, hemming in the car behind me. God, it's great being a sadistic vampire.

Bella finally caught sight of her friends, walking away from the restaurant. "How did you know where…?" I cut off her train of thought, just because I could, really, and then she just shook her head as if to clear it. I got out of the car with her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you to dinner." Her friends were getting farther away. "Go stop Jessica and Angela before I have to track them down, too. I don't think I could restrain myself if I ran into your other friends again."

She shivered from the implied threat in my tone. "Jess! Angela!" They rushed over to us, relief apparent on their faces.

"Where have you been?" one asked, I think it was J-whatever.

"I got lost," Bella replied. "And then I ran into Edward."

"Would it be all right if I joined you?" I said, using one of my seductive tones. They both responded to it, but the other girl was not strongly affected.

"Er…sure," said J-something…_Jenny? Jessie?_

"Um, actually, Bella, we already ate while we were waiting—sorry," said the other girl. _Angelica? _My charm was having very little effect on her. Oh, wait…man, I hate lesbians.* They are so hard for male vampires to lure in.

"That's fine—I'm not hungry," said Bella.

"I think you should eat something," I told her. Besides, I wasn't finished with her yet. I looked at Jessica. "Do you mind if I drive Bella home tonight? That way you won't have to wait while she eats." I dropped a note in her mind. _**And you DON'T want to wait on her.**_

She looked hesitantly at Bella. I don't know what Bella did, but it must have been reassuring, because she said, "Uh, no problem, I guess…"

"Okay," the lesbian said. "See you tomorrow, Bella…Edward." I seem to always make lesbians uneasy. Maybe it's the obvious attraction to me, when in their experience there should really be none. Hm. The two girls walked off, and Bella turned back to me.

"Honestly, I'm not hungry."

"Humor me." A booth would be more comfortable than any park bench, and I wanted to see if she was jealous yet, using the hostess as my point of interest. I smiled at her as she walked in, and I could tell it was instant turn-on for her. She greeted me _very_ warmly, and didn't give Bella a second glance. Heck, Bella barely got a _first_ glance. "Table for two," I requested. She led us to a large table in the middle of the restaurant. I leaned in close to the hostess and lightly squeezed her hand. "Perhaps something more private?" I spoke softly in her ear. I think she nearly has an orgasm right then, at least she got all hot and bothered. Which was precisely my intent.

"Sure." I think the hostess nearly strangled on the word. She led us to a booth. "How's this?"

"Perfect." I flashed a smile at her, laden with promise.

"Um…your server will be right out." Her sentence was hurried, as if she was afraid she couldn't get it all out. She quickly walked away.

"You really shouldn't do that to people; it's hardly fair," Bella said. _To them, or to you?_

"Do what?"

"Dazzle them like that. She's probably hyperventilating in the kitchen right now." _I bet she's doing _something_ in the kitchen._ _Or some_one. _"Someone's in the kitchen with the hooooo-stess, someone's in the kitchen I know-ow-ow-ow…" _***

"I dazzle people?"

"You haven't noticed? Do you think everybody gets their way so easily?"

I decided to just come out and ask. I wondered if she would answer honestly. "Do I dazzle _you_?"

"Frequently." I was surprised by her candor. I honestly thought she would try to deny it.

The server arrived. She gave me a once-over so strong it was almost tangible. "Hello. My name is Amber, and I'll be your server tonight. What can I get you to drink?" She kept her eyes on me.

"Two Cokes." She left, and I turned to Bella. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't feel dizzy, sick, cold…?" _You won't swoon in a womanly way?_

"Should I?"

"Well, I'm actually waiting for you to go into shock."

"I don't think that will happen. I've always been very good at repressing unpleasant things." _Like actually having a boy at school like you enough to _ask you out_? Tough life._

"Just the same, I'll feel better when you have some food in you." And here came the waitress.

"Are you ready to order?"

Bella barely glanced at the menu. "Um…I'll have the mushroom ravioli."

She turned back to me. "And you?"

"Nothing for me." _Maybe a hostess with a side of waitress…_

"Let me know if you change your mind." She left again.

I noticed Bella hadn't touched her soda. "Drink," I ordered.

She obeyed without hesitation. _Good doggie. _She quickly finished hers, so I pushed mine over to her. She muttered thanks, but soon shivered.

"Are you cold?" I asked.

"It's just the Coke."

"Don't you have a jacket?"

"Yes." She reached over the empty seat beside her. "Oh—I left it in Jessica's car."

I shrugged out of my jacket, playing the gentleman—and caught her staring at me. No, not just staring at me. She was flat-out ogling me, the lusty wench. I handed her my jacket, and she relaxed into it, inhaling deeply. Apparently the sickly-sweet smell of decay was an aphrodisiac of sorts to her. I pushed the basket of bread toward her.

"Really, I'm not going into shock," she protested.

"You should be. A normal person would be. You don't even look shaken."

"I feel very safe with you."

That wasn't quite what I was going for.

She suddenly observed, "Usually you're in a better mood when your eyes are so light."

I just stared at her, stunned. I can't believe she caught me flat-footed again! "What?"

"You're always crabbier when your eye are black. I expect it then. I have a theory about that."

"More theories?"

"Mm-hm."

"I hope you were more creative this time…or are you still stealing from comic books?" I asked, deliberately mocking her.

"Well, no, I didn't get it from a comic book, but I didn't come up with it on my own, either." She hesitated.

"And?"

Just then the waitress came with Bella's food. She set it down in front of her and turned to me. "Did you change your mind? Isn't there anything I can get you?" _How about off? You know, like 'get me off'? A tempting offer, luscious…_

"Some more soda would be nice."

"Sure." Off she went.

"You were saying…?" I prompted.

"I'll tell you about it…if…"

"There are conditions?" How amusing.

"I do have a few questions, of course."

"Of course." The waitress came with our Cokes. "Well, go ahead."

She thought for a moment. "Why are you in Port Angeles?"

I couldn't resist teasing her. I looked at her through my lashes. "Next."

"But that's the easiest one," she objected.

"Next." She looked down, frustrated.

After some thought, she looked up again. "Okay, then. Let's say, hypothetically of course, that…someone…could know what people were thinking, read minds—you know."

Where the hell did this come from?! Maybe she's more perceptive than I gave her credit for. "With one exception…hypothetically."

"All right, with one exception, then. How does that work? What are the limitations? How would…that someone…find someone else at exactly the right time? How would he know she was in trouble?"

"Hypothetically?" _Uh, because he caused the trouble in the first place? Easiest way, you know. _

"Sure."

"Well, if…that someone…"

"Let's call him 'Joe,'" she said.

"Joe, then. If 'Joe' had been paying attention, the timing wouldn't have needed to be quite so exact." I got tired of the "hypothetical" bit, and rolled my eyes. "Only _you_ could get into trouble in a town this small. You would have devastated their crime rate statistics for a decade, you know."

"How did you know?" she asked abruptly.

I didn't know how to answer that question. I couldn't tell her the truth; I had a feeling that wouldn't go over well. She misunderstood my hesitation.

"You can trust me, you know."

"I think I was somewhat mistaken. You're more observant than I gave you credit for."

"I thought you were always right."

This felt too much like a genuine "moment" so I decided to derail it. "I was wrong about you on one other thing, as well. You're not a magnet for accidents—that's not a broad enough classification. You are a magnet for _trouble_. If there is anything dangerous within a ten-mile radius, it will invariably find you." _ I did, didn't I? _

"And you put yourself into that category?"

"Absolutely." Silence. Right now I couldn't stand the silence, so I started talking. "I followed you to Port Angeles. I've never tried to keep a specific person alive before, and it's much more troublesome than I would have believed." That was all true. I couldn't resist another dig at her. "But that's probably just because it's you. Ordinary people seem to make it through the day without so many catastrophes."

I was somewhat amazed by the turn of her thoughts at my confession. She was pleased that I was following her. What is wrong with this girl? Was she happy that her paranoia was justified? Not that she _was_ paranoid, but it was the only explanation I could think of that made any sense.

She tried to joke a little. "Did you ever think that maybe my number was up the first time, with the van, and that you've been interfering with fate?"

I looked directly into her eyes. "That wasn't the first time. Your number was up the first time I met you." A fierce flash of fear fluttered across her mind.**** "And yet here you sit."

"Yes, here I sit. Because of you. Because somehow you knew how to find me today…?" She was obviously prompting me to share.

I made a decision. "You eat, I'll talk." I said, gesturing at her plate. I hastily thought of a plausible explanation that still hid how open her mind really was to me.

"It's harder than it should be—keeping track of you. Usually I can find someone very easily, once I've heard their mind before. I was keeping tabs on Jessica, not carefully—like I said, only you could find trouble in Port Angeles—and at first I didn't notice when you took off on your own. Then, when I realized that you weren't with her anymore, I went looking for you at the bookstore I saw in her head. I could tell that you hadn't gone in, and that you'd gone south…and I knew you would have to turn around soon. So I was just waiting for you, randomly searching through the thoughts of people on the street—to see if anyone had noticed you so I would know where you were."

I stayed silent for a while, to think of some more rubbish to spew at her. "I started to drive in circles, still listening. The sun was finally setting, and I was about to get out and follow you on foot. And then…" I stopped talking and clenched my teeth, attempting to show an appropriate amount of anger. Too much? Maybe so.

"Then what?" she whispered.

"I heard what they were thinking. I saw your face in his mind." I leaned forward. "It was very…hard—you can't imagine how hard—for me to simply take you away and leave them…alive." That was actually the truth, but not for any righteous justice for the scared little girl. I just think that that level of incompetence in any person, at that age, should be enough to warrant their death. Darwin awards and all that jazz.

I waited a couple minutes while the full impact of what I'd just said weighted on her. Then I asked her, "Are you ready to go home?"

"I'm ready to leave." _But not ready to go home, huh?_

I paid the bill, making sure to slip a small note with a number under the twenty I paid with, and told her to keep the change. If she ignored it, fine. If, on the other hand, she took me up on it…well, I always did enjoy midnight snacks. I kept my eyes on Bella on our way out, to make her feel like the Special Snowflake she's convinced that she is. Bella didn't break into a goofy grin over that, but she wanted to; that made me want to laugh. _Oh yes, you are oh-so-special, m'girl._

I led her out to the car, and we started the journey back to Forks. I turned toward her. "Now it's your turn."

____________________________________________

*I don't know if Angela is supposed to be lesbian or not, it's just a plausible reason for her to remain sensible while Jessica and Bella are entranced by Edward.

**Darkward _could_ remember names if he wanted to, but he really just doesn't want to.

***To the tune of "Someone's in the Kitchen With Dinah"

****I'm sorry! I just couldn't resist! I'm actually reading through "Twilight" to do this, and her purple prose is affecting me!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Can I ask just one more?" her whiny voice grated at me.

I sighed. "One."

"Well, you said you knew I hadn't gone into the bookstore, and where I had gone. I was just wondering how you knew that."

"Easy. I followed your scent." I deliberately said it to try to gross her out or something. Guess it didn't work. She's a very strange girl; anyone else would be kinda freaked. She just seemed to accept it.

"You didn't answer one of my questions."

Lord, wasn't this girl done yet? "Which one?"

"How does that mind-reading work? How do you do it? What about-?" Basically, she wanted to know all about my mind-reading abilities, so I gave the run-down: I'm the only Cullen who can do it, my "range" is only about a couple miles, and the more familiar I am with someone's thoughts, the farther away I can hear them.

"Why do you think you can't hear me?"

_Because you're a super-special snowflake, my pet. _Luckily, by this time I was getting pretty good at the whole "improvised conceivable lie" thing. "I don't know. My only guess is that maybe your mind doesn't work the same as others'. Like your mind is on the AM frequency, and everyone else is FM." _Am I seriously spewing this tripe? No way she'll buy that._

But she did! "My mind doesn't work right? I'm a freak?" She sounded stricken by the thought.

_Well, since most of the rest of humanity are not self-centered vindictive bitches, I suppose that would make you a freak._ I just tried to laugh it off. Didn't need her going all self-examining on me, now. "I hear voices in my mind and you're worried that you're the freak. Enough about me, though. What about you?"

"Where to begin…?" She obviously didn't want to talk about herself, so she looked everywhere but at me, and spied the speedometer. "HOLY CROW! Slow down!" I almost lost my concentration as I nearly jumped out of my skin. What was this? I skimmed her mind. Oh. Apparently the morbid teenage girl who will happily throw her classmate under the wheels of her truck is afraid of a little speed.

"You're going a hundred miles an hour!"

"Relax, Bella." I rolled my eyes at her. I was enjoying scaring the ever-living daylights out of her. It really got her blood running.

"Are you trying to kill us?" Sheesh, overdramatic much?

"We're not going to crash." _Killing you will come later, I'm afraid._

"Keep your eyes on the road! Maybe _you_ can walk away from a head-on with a tree, but I can't!"

She was right about that, I guess. I slowed down by about 20mph. "Happy?"

"Almost," she said, sulking.

"By the way, I'm still waiting for your latest theory."

"I don't know where to start."

"OK, well, you said you didn't come up with on your own, so…"

She began explaining, pausing after every sentence to gauge my reaction. "It was Saturday, at the beach. I ran into an old family friend—Jacob Black. His dad and Charlie have been friends since I was a baby. His dad is one of the Quileute elders. We went for a walk—" I got a brief flash of a scene from her memory, in which she apparently tried to seduce Jacob, and it worked well enough (_Ooh, I think I will be proud of you someday, Bella_), "—and he was telling me some legends—trying to scare me, I think. He told me…about vampires."

"And you immediately thought of me?" _That would reveal some until-now-unnoticed intelligence on your part. _

"No." _Called it. _"He mentioned your family. He just thought it was a silly superstition," she said hurriedly. He didn't expect me to believe it. It was my fault, I forced him to tell me."

_Riiight, I saw how you 'forced' him. _"Why?"

"Lauren said something about you, and an older boy from the tribe said your family didn't come to the reservation, only it sounded like he was implying something else. So I got Jacob alone and made him tell me."

"What did you do then?"

"I did some internet research."

"And did that convince you?"

"Well, eventually I just decided it didn't matter."

"It didn't matter?" The look I gave her then must have been frightening. It sounded a bit like a break-up speech, and there was no way I was giving her up, now, especially not after the "camping trip." *

"No. It doesn't matter to me what you are."

I caught a flicker of thought that went something like 'you can still be good.' Oh yeah, that stupid _benefici _vampire garbage I posted so that she'd find it. At least Carlisle hadn't suggested that one. That would just be one other thing to hold over my head. Still, I decided to play it up anyway. "You don't care if I'm a monster? If I'm not human?"

"No. But I am curious."

Now she had my attention. "What are you curious about?"

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen." I smirked.

"And how long have you _been_ seventeen?"

That question actually made me smile. "A while."

"Don't laugh…how can you come out during daytime?"

I had to chuckle at that. "Myth."

"Burned by the sun?"

_Depends on your definition of 'burned.' _"Myth."

"Sleeping in coffins?"

"Myth. In fact, I don't sleep."

She paused for a moment, to let it sink in, I think. "At all?"

"Never." _All the better to stalk you, my dear._

"You haven't asked the most obvious and important question yet."

"Which one?" Good Lord, did this girl actually _read_ any of the information she supposedly accessed about vampires?

"The one about my diet. You know, blood-sucking denizens of the night? Don't you want to know if I drink blood?"

"Oh, that." Score another for 'clueless girl.' "Well, Jacob said something about that." I waited for her to go on. He said you didn't hunt people. He said your family wasn't supposed to be dangerous because you only hunted animals."

"He said we weren't dangerous?!" I started making plans to show this Jacob just how 'not dangerous' I could be.

"He said you weren't _supposed_ to be dangerous, but the Quileutes still don't want you on their land, just in case. So was he right? About not hunting people?"

"Seems the Quileutes have a long memory," I muttered. "But don't let that make you complacent, though. They're right to keep their distance. We _are_ dangerous." I know it seems counter-productive to keep telling this girl to keep her guard up, but that will just add to the guilt later when she realizes she could have _avoided this whole thing!_ "We try, but sometimes we make mistakes."

"Tell me more." She was surprisingly interested in this whole thing.

"What more do you want to know?"

"Tell me why you hunt animals instead of people."

"Well, it's like being a vegan instead of an omnivore. We still crave the meat, but we get the essentials from animals, and we don't _need_ human blood. Basically, it keeps the hunger at bay." I hoped she wouldn't notice that I didn't actually answer her question. That would be harder to come up with on the spot.

"So, is that what you were doing last weekend, with Carlisle? Hunting?"

My hands tightened around the steering wheel. "Yeah…we were…hunting. For three days." _He was hunting for more than deer, though._ "I'm glad to see you followed my request to try and keep yourself safe, though," I continued, deliberately pricking her pride.

"Wait, you just spent the weekend, right? So why weren't any of you in school?"

"Well, you asked if the sun hurt me, and it doesn't. But I don't go out in the sunlight—at least, not where anyone can see me."

"Why?"

"Mmmmm—I'll show you sometime." _Edward Cullen, man (sort of) of mystery_.

She got quiet all of a sudden. "I didn't like it, you know, when you were gone. It makes me anxious, not seeing you."

What?! Where the hell did _that_ come from? It's a good thing I wasn't drinking something, and that I didn't have to breathe, for that matter, because I would have most assuredly choked in either case.

My mind was in a whirl. _What do I say to this? I'm a vampire, right? I want her to be all attached to me, right? So, yay? No wait, I'm one of those "side of good" vampires that I made up, right? So, I should be all 'Rar, stay away, it's not safe'? I need to speak to Carlisle! Ugh, I don't want to involve _him_ again. That would probably mean another "camping trip." Eee-yaa-ugh! _

"I don't want to hear that you feel that way." Oh. Crap. I think I just said that last part out loud. _Think fast, Edward. _"Uh, it's not safe. I'm dangerous, Bella—please understand that."

"No!" What the hell? _Now_ she has to act like a stubborn toddler who just learned a new word? "I told you, it doesn't matter what you are. It's too late."

_Not by a long shot, wench. _"Never say that." I knew it was far from over.

She was silent for a couple minutes, long enough that I glanced over at her. Her cheeks were wet, presumably from tears.

"Are you crying?"

She reached up and touched her cheeks, apparently surprised that she was, indeed, crying. "No." Why do girls do that? She's so obviously crying and she lies about it. I lifted a hand hesitantly to—I don't know, comfort her or something—then realized I hadn't the foggiest idea how to get a girl to stop crying, especially when I don't know why she's crying in the first place. Oh, forget it. I dropped my hand. Oh, thank God, we were arriving in Forks.

"Will I see you tomorrow?" she asked.

I replied honestly. Being mysterious took way too much out of me. "Yes—I have a paper due, too. I'll save you a seat at lunch." _More showing off for me. _

We pulled up to her house, and she handed me back my jacket after getting out of the car. I had a sudden horrifying thought. This girl was clueless and annoying, which meant at least one thing: excellent vampire snackage. "Bella? Will you promise me something?"

"Yes." Whoa. That was quick.

"Don't go into the woods alone."

"Why?"

"I'm not always the most dangerous thing out there. Let's leave it at that." It would be just like my "family" to feed on her and claim ignorance or lack of control later when I confronted them. A couple of them would get a sadistic kick out of destroying my 'project' and making me start from scratch.

She turned to leave, and I couldn't resist what I did next. "Bella?" She turned toward me, and I went into full "dazzle" mode. "Sleep well." _And think nasty, sexy teen girl thoughts about me, ok? _My "dazzle" had its desired effect, I saw, as she stumbled up the drive into the house. I put the car in gear and started down the road. I would have liked to stay and observe what happened after she went in the house, but I had to get the car back. If I didn't get it back soon, Carlisle might just half-kill me. Have you ever been half-killed? Not fun, even for a vampire.

My phone rang. It was the waitress. I ran my tongue along my upper lip. _Someone's going to miss her shift tomorrow. _Inner Edward started singing, ***_"This vam-pire's gettin' lu-cky toniiight, lu-cky toniiight, lu-cky toniiight; fucking and hunting and feeding toniiight, by the light of the silvery moon…_

*If you've forgotten, read chapter 6 again.

**Oh, dur, I just realized that Edward went "camping" with EMMETT, not Carlisle, in the original! Oh, well, I like it better this way, and I'm the author, gorrammit!

***To the tune of "Buffalo Gals"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The next day was delightfully dark and foggy, so I decided to see how much I could startle and flummox her by just showing up suddenly in her driveway. She was satisfactorily so, particularly when I showed up at the door to her truck, from out of the blue. Or gray, if you want to get technical. "Do you want to ride with me today?" I asked, as soon as her heart got back to normal rhythms.

"Yes, thank you." _Good doggie. Hee hee. _I deliberately wore a shirt that showed off my upper body today, and just as I hoped, she began ogling it as soon as she got in the car. Hey, vampires are vain creatures, and I, for one, will take any excuse to feed my vanity. _Oh yeah, look at these sexy muscles; lust after them, you hussy. _

I noticed she was being unusually quiet this morning. "What, no twenty questions today?"

"Do my questions bother you?"

"Not as much as your reactions do."

"Do I react badly?"

"No, and that's the problem. You take everything so calmly—it's unnatural." I guess she didn't know what to say that, because she was silent a few moments until she changed the subject.

"Where's the rest of your family?"

"They took Rosalie's car." I gestured to a red convertible already parked in the lot. "Ostentatious, isn't it?"

She couldn't take her eyes off it. "Wow. If she has that, why does she ride with you?"

"Like I said, it's ostentatious. Usually we try to blend in."

"Well, you don't succeed." Her response was so sarcastic I couldn't help but laugh. "Hey, why do you have cars like that at all, if you're looking for privacy?"

I smiled. "We like to drive fast." She muttered something under her breath, and that made me chuckle, too, unflattering though it was.

Just then Jessica walked up to us, carrying Bella's jacket. She gave it back, she and Bella had some awkward conversation, and Jessica walked off again. I heard a thought from Bella: What on earth am I going to tell her?

"What on earth are you going to tell her?" I said, deliberately goading her.

"Hey, I thought you couldn't read my mind!"

"I can't—but I can read hers, and she's going to ambush you in class."

She groaned. Her irritation was obvious, and I was glad to have my stability back after last night.

"So what are you going to tell her?" I pestered her.

"Quick! What does she want to know?"

I wagged my finger in front of her face. "Ah-ah-ahh, Bella, that would be unfair."

"No, what's unfair is you not sharing what you know." I was enjoying this game.

I pretended that I was considering for a moment. "Ok. She wants to know if we're secretly dating. And she wants to know how you feel about me."

"Augh! What should I say?"

"Say whatever you want." I started walking backward down the hallway, away from her. "I don't know what you want her to hear. See you at lunch," I called as I left her fuming and sputtering outside her next class. She was embarrassed because of the attention I drew to her by calling out like that. Me? I was feeling very satisfied. Let her be the one unbalanced for a while.

I 'listened' in from across the school during Bella's Trig class as she and Jessica talked about our impromptu date in Port Angeles. I wasn't paying real close attention—most of it was about how far we'd gone, what we talked about—girl gossip stuff. Then Bella said something that really caught my attention. "I can't explain it right…but he's even more unbelievable _behind_ the face." Well, that was confusing. Then I caught her next thoughts—and totally lost my composure. _"The vampire who wanted to be good—who ran around saving people's lives so he wouldn't be a monster…"_

I literally fell off my chair from laughing so hard. The teacher appeared before me as if summoned, and all I could do was stare up at her helplessly as chuckles still rippled through my chest.

"And what, Mr. Cullen, do you find so amusing about the death of Julius Caesar?" She frowned down at me, hands on her hips.

"Ah-hah, eh-heh, oh, it's just that the irony is so thick…" Thinking about it again sent me off into another paroxysm of laughter, and finally I was dismissed. I had to spend the rest of the period in the principal's office, where I eventually settled down. Unfortunately I missed the rest of their conversation, but at least I was feeling good.

By the time lunch rolled around, I was posed against the wall outside Bella's classroom. We walked to lunch, and I loaded a bunch of food on a tray.

"Are you getting all that for me?" she asked.

"Half is for me, of course." We sat down in the same place as last time. "Take whatever you want."

"I wonder…what would you do if someone dared you to eat food?" She picked up an apple and started playing with it.

I gave her a sardonic look and grabbed the slice of pizza off the tray, took a bite, chewed and swallowed. It was an effort to not gag. Except for blood, organic material tends to make us slightly ill. Still, at least there was less organic material than there could have been (it WAS school-lunch pizza, after all). She stared at me, a little startled by the vehemence of my action. I looked her square in the eye. "If someone dared you to eat dirt, you could, couldn't you?"

"I did once, on a dare," she said ruefully.

"I suppose I'm not surprised." I stared at her until it made her uncomfortable. I wanted her to be off-balance. "So the waitress was pretty, was she?"

"You didn't notice?"

"No." _Of course I noticed, you dunce. Hard to miss with her throwing herself at me like she was._ "I wasn't paying attention. I had a lot on my mind." _Like whether or not she would call me later._

"Poor girl." She thought she was being magnanimous. I was thinking how much fun the waitress had been after I picked her up. She was a tigress in the bedroom! I almost just took her home after that. I was hungry after playing so rough, though…yeah, it would have been better to just bring her home; then I could have called her again. Too late now.

Bella started getting down on herself, saying how she was ordinary, and klutzy, and I was so, well, perfect (_of course I am_). Time to butter her up, I guess. "You don't see yourself very clearly, you know. I'll admit you're dead-on about your shortcomings, but you didn't hear what every human male in this school was thinking on your first day." The way I said it implied that it was flattering. Really what they were thinking something along the line of 'hey, there's a new girl. How interesting.'

She bought the flattering bit. "Wow, I don't believe it…" She was more embarrassed than pleased, showing not a lot of vanity about her appearance. We could work on that later.

"Got a question for you," I said, changing the subject. "Do you really need to go to Seattle this Saturday, or was that just an excuse to get out of saying no to your 'admirers'?

She made a face. "You know, I haven't forgiven you for Tyler yet. It's your fault that he's deluded himself into thinking I'm going to prom with him." _No, actually it's yours for avoiding him like the plague when he's just trying to make up for ALMOST KILLING YOU. But you can't be bothered to take stock of the feelings of others, can you, my pet?_

"Oh, he would have found a chance to ask you without my assistance—I just really wanted to watch your face." That was entirely true. It seemed the natural following question, so I asked it. "If I'd asked you, would you have turned _me_ down?"

"Probably not, but I would have canceled later—faked an illness or a sprained ankle." I was incredulous. What a cold-hearted bitch she was! Awesome!

"Why would you do that?"

"Have you not seen how klutzy I tend to be?"

"Psh! That wouldn't be a problem. It's all in the leading." _And you have no idea how true that is._ "But you never told me—are you resolved on going to Seattle, or do you mind if we do something different?"

"Sure. But can I ask a favor?"

I narrowed my eyes. "What?"

"Can I drive?"

That threw me off for a moment. "Why?"

"Because I'm supposed to be going alone, according to what I told Charlie, and your driving frightens me." My _driving_? Maybe I needed to play up the 'vampire' bit a little more.

Oh, she's speaking again. "Why did you go to that Goat Rocks place…to hunt? Charlie said it wasn't a good place to hike, because of the bears." _That's one way to look at it. _

I gave her a toothy grin.

"Bears?" she said. I kept grinning. "They're not in season, you know."

I was all innocence as I explained. "If you actually read through the laws, they only cover hunting with manufactured weapons."

She was stunned, still taking it in. "Bears?"

"Grizzly is Emmett's personal favorite," I added, laying it on thick.

"Wait, I thought you went hunting with Carlisle."

"I never said we went hunting for bear; you assumed it."

She pouted at that, apparently miffed that I had "tricked" her. "So…what's your favorite?" she asked hesitantly.

I grinned wider. "Mountain lion." That much was true. Not as much brute force as grizzlies, but they're scrappy animals. Have you ever tried to handle an angry house cat? It's like that, only times ten. "Early spring is Emmett's favorite bear season," I said, warming up to the subject. "They're just coming out of hibernation, so they're more irritable."

She shook her head. "I'm trying to picture it, but I can't. How do you hunt a bear without weapons?"

"Who said we didn't have weapons?" I lifted my chin to further expose my teeth. "Just not the kind they consider when writing hunting laws. Have you ever seen a bear attack on TV? Emmett hunting is kinda like that."

She turned her head to look at Emmett, noticing his bulk, all banded muscle and whip-cord sinew. A saw a shiver of fear move down her spine, and that gave me warm fuzzies. About time she actually did something, y'know, _human_. She's supposed to be one, after all. She was silent for a minute of two, then turned suddenly back to me. "Is that something I might get to see?"

"Absolutely not!" I jolted back so hard I almost tipped backward out of my chair. That was the last thing I would have expected her to say, and certainly the last thing I wanted to hear at this point. That she could even ask that question revealed a morbid side to her that had been heretofore hidden.

"Too scary for me?" she asked when I had recovered most of my composure.

"If that were it, I would take you out tonight. You _need_ a healthy dose of fear."

"Then why?"

"Later." I stood up, hopefully with an air of finality. "We're going to be late."

She glanced around at the nearly empty cafeteria, jumped out of her seat and grabbed her bag. "Later, then."

I watched her leave, my thoughts at a roiling boil. There was no way in hell I would let her watch the hunt, not if she was this eager. See, when a human gets turned, their core personality remains, but every tendency toward human vice—lust, greed, envy, pride, gluttony, wrath—becomes emphasized. That meant that if I turned Bella anytime soon, her lust for violence (remember Tyler?), the hunt, and slaughter would only be increased. She would be brutal, deadly, and dangerous. A fine specimen of a vampire, and willful enough that Carlisle may not even be able to bring her into our fold. If the thought of the hunt got her blood up now, it would excite her something fierce after she was turned. And if that happened while she was still in this mindset, it wouldn't be me snaring her in my web of deceit. I would be ensnared by her.

*This is at the same time easy and hard. I know Edward's personality, so his take on things is easy, but transitioning between book "I said, he said" into "she said, I said" can be difficult at times. Keep up with the reading and reviewing, though, it gives me strength, and a reason to press on!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I am an Update Speed Demon. And Ninja.

I followed her to Biology class, oh that fateful class. Even though Vamp-Bella kind of scared me, the image was a turn-on, too. The teacher was showing a video, so the lights were off, and I decided it was time to have some more fun with Bella. She was still thinking about watching me go hunting, and since her blood was up anyway, I proceeded to turn her thoughts in an entirely different direction. I decided to attempt to bind her to me with sexual desire and lust; those urges are strong and instinctual, and if I could tap those, I would have a better chance of controlling her after she was turned.

I sat as close as I could to her without us actually touching, and accessed that part of her thoughts that was lusting after me. I followed the thread of her thoughts as it turned from me as a hunter/predator to me a toned pubescent male specimen. Her eyes flickered toward me several times, and her breathing grew stilted and uneven. With her thoughts came a kind of empathy, so I could feel all the tingling and other such sensations in her body, as she thought about touching me, even as much as a caress on my arm.

I encountered a story once about a woman who could literally think herself to an orgasm. I suspect every woman in the world wants to be her, and if they don't it's only because they haven't heard of her. Bella could give that woman a run for her money right now. Of course, Bella had a little help. She started to fidget, grinding her hips in her chair; I don't even think she realized she was doing it. She felt something like an electric current run through her body, her heart started beating faster, and her breathing quickened, and suddenly broke with a quiet gasp. Endorphins and hormones flooded her system, and breathing slowly went back to normal. That was a long build-up—almost the whole period. The best part was she thought I was entirely innocent in this occurrence! Priceless.

The lights came on, and it was time to go to our next class. "Well, that was interesting," I said as I sidled up to her on our way out the door. She couldn't make a coherent response to that. That made me happy. We had different classes next, so before we parted ways I ran my fingertips along one of her cheekbones, willing her to focus on just that touch, feel the "electricity" once again, trying to drive to distraction once more. She almost staggered when I drew my hand away, and I couldn't help but giggle, though thankfully I managed to keep it silent.

Looks like I had to come at this from a new angle. I had to make this bitch hot for me, in a "let me be the bun for your hot dog" kind of way. Well, there's always dream time, I suppose.

I took her home from school that day as well. Almost as soon as we got in the car she turned to me. "Is it 'later' yet?"

Oh brother. "You still want to know why you can't watch me hunt?"

"Well, why can't I? What would be bad about it?" _You should have lived in ancient Rome. You would have loved these competitions they held. You know, in the arenas?_

I tried to come up with a mostly true and plausible explanation. I'm not good at lying _all_ the time. "Well, when we hunt…we give ourselves over to our instincts. We don't even try to control ourselves, at the end. And if you were anywhere nearby when that happened…" I let her fill in the blanks, and I filled them in myself as well. _Your near-ecstasy at the sight of me out of control might pull you in the wrong direction, vice-wise. Also, I might blow the operation by going after _you_ for dessert, quite literally. _I could see her thoughts, wherein I became some kind of bipedal predator, and desperately tried to head those off with more sex-oriented ones by catching her eyes once again. To my great relief, it worked. I could feel the build-up begin in her again, felt her desire for the climax that was coming.

I broke contact before it happened again. "Bella, I think you should go inside now." I could see and feel the disappointment she felt, I felt satisfied by the cause of it. Her mind was no longer on watching me hunt. As she walked up the drive, I called after. "Oh, Bella?"

"Yes?"

"Tomorrow it's my turn."

Her breathing hitched a little and she tensed up just a fraction. "Your turn for what?"

I smiled a wide and innocent smile. "To ask the questions, of course." Her body relaxed again. She went inside, while I wondered what she had thought I was going to say. I didn't read her thoughts about that, because I was almost certain that whatever my imagination came up with would be far more entertaining than the truth.

I drove the car back home and returned to her house on foot before she went to sleep. I had to reinforce the point of attraction: sex, not violence. That night was a field trip for me as I cavorted in her dreams, dancing around with her, romping, teasing, in a feather bed, in a grassy field, anywhere our collective imaginations took us both, in various stages of dress or undress, but never quite making it to the "Promised Land." She would probably need to change her panties in the morning. Good night for me, frustrating for her. _Lust after me, Bella. Like a good little bitch._

I picked her up for school the next morning, and began my session of question-asking. Favorite color: brown. Seriously, brown? Oh wait, no, she doesn't have one single favorite color, it changes with her mood. What kind of girl doesn't have a favorite color? At the very least it would be one that looks good on them. But wait, her hair is brown, and it's her only significant feature, so I guess that makes sense.*

I began asking questions almost at random, gaining inspiration from the things around us (for example, what was in her CD player right now), or anything else that might lead to a question about her personal self. I had to keep pretending that I couldn't just get this right out of her head, after all.

Biology was another film, thus another "sexual fantasy fest," and this time I decided to tease her a little by sitting just a little farther away, but still close enough to touch. And no fulfillment this time, either, just like with her dreams. It drove her crazy, and me to blissful satisfaction.

I asked her about her home in Arizona, and finally I got to take a break from the questions! Seems she could talk about that for a long time, the land, and community, or whatever she said. Just because I look attentive, doesn't mean I'm listening. I think she had just finished describing her room, of all things, like I would care about that, when I heard the sound of an engine and sensed three people, two of whom were of particular interest to me. "Particular interest" in this case meant I did not want to still be around when they got here.

I excused myself with some poetic observation about the melancholy aspect of darkness with regard to vampires** (I think, I wasn't paying close attention, but I've had that speech in reserve for awhile, so I hope it made sense to Bella), and tore out of there before the canine couple riding with Charlie arrived. I had enough drama to deal with; I didn't need any werewolf-vampire feud stuff getting in the way. While I was still in range, I focused on Bella's mind to figure out just which two wolves were there. It was Jacob, the one she'd seduced on the beach!

Can I get a "yay"? because I have just pared down twenty pages of large print into 1350 (give or take) manageable words.

*This comment is my own commentary on the fact that the only description we get on Bella in "Twilight" is the fact that she has brown hair and she looks like her mother (but since we don't get a description of her, it doesn't do one damned bit of good). Height, weight, hair color (or do we actually get that?) or length, body size even (slim, spindly, fit, whatever)! This is one reason reading it gave me such a headache. I couldn't picture any of the characters, so I couldn't visualize them doing anything! It was less interesting than a stick-man flip-book! At least I know what stick-men look like, as few features as they have.

**Another "gag me" moment, in which Edward says, "It's twilight," and they talk about darkness and night for a while. I had a broiled cheese sandwich for dinner tonight, my cheddar craving has been satisfied already (in simpler terms, that is just too CHEESY!!)


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Rosalie caught me pacing in the sitting room at home that night. She came up behind me and put her arms around me, hands clasped "somewhat lower than my waist,"* resting her chin on my shoulder, in what was effectively a loose but _very_ intimate embrace. "Hey, little brother, what's got your dander up?"

I brushed her off and stepped away impatiently. "Not now, Rosalie, I have to figure something out, and _that_ isn't helping," I said, referring to her "embrace."

"This must be about Bella." She crossed to the couch and sat down in the middle, crossing legs and folding her arms over her chest. "Come on, dish. Tell your big sister your problem." She may be a vampire, but she's still a girl: loves the gossip.

I slouched dejectedly in the easy chair across from her. "I've been working on Bella for several weeks now, and just when I think I'm almost there, a new player enters the scene."

She cocked her head and smiled indulgently. "I don't see what the problem is, Edward. I think you're just getting a version of 'cold feet.' You're reaching the end so you think it can't possibly be over already. I mean, look at us." She sat up and grandly gestured with one hand toward me, then herself. "We're vampires, and that means we are automatically sexy, attractive, and that we overshadow any mere mortal in, oh, every category that matters to most people." She sat back then, confident in her assessment of the situation.

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, and looked off to the side. "It's not that simple. She has a history with this particular boy. They spent several summers together here while they were growing up and…" Here I hesitated, but knew I had to go on to give her the whole picture. "…and he's one of the Quileutes."

She straightened, and a look of repugnance crossed her face, temporarily marring her natural beauty. "Now _they're_ poking around in this? I don't like it, Edward. Maybe you should drop her and find someone else."

"But I've already come so far." Great, now I was pleading. Only my "family" could reduce me to this.

"Has he gone "furry" yet? Has she shown any interest him other than nostalgia?" She fired off questions like this was an interrogation.

I sat up straight. "He's too young yet, but he will in time. You know how I can tell those things." She nodded. "As for the other…I just don't know. She tried to seduce him once—but only to try and get some information out of him." I said the last part quickly, because it looked like Rosalie was going to jump all over it.

"It's always harder with a rival involved, Edward, you know that."

"I know." Now I looked her square in the eyes. "But I've already come this far, 'played' with Carlisle enough, that I can't just give up over this, not yet. You know how stubborn I can be when I set my mind on something."

She stared at me a while, frowning slightly, apparently gauging the strength of my resolve, and finally nodded. "I'll play along for now, but if things get hairy—unfunny pun intended—I will end this, even if I have to kill her."

I believed her.

Satisfied that I knew her thoughts and feelings on the matter, she stood up and sashayed out of the room, once again confident in her strength and beauty. I, on the other hand, was feeling not much better about this whole business. I sank back into the chair and sighed, laying my head back against the cushion.

"I heard most of what you two said. Not exactly a motivational speaker, is she?" Alice said as she poked her head around the doorjamb, then walked into the room. She sat on one of the end cushions of the same couch Rosalie had used, her legs tucked under her. God, she looked cute. At four foot ten with short spiky hair, high cheekbones, and graceful bearing, she looked a lot like I imagined an elf might. Short, spunky, and utterly charming.

I sighed. "So what do you think of my current predicament?"

"I think it's kinda romantic."

"You think lots of things are romantic, Alice." Still, it made me feel better to hear it. I could almost always count on Alice cheering me up whenever I was down about something. I can't explain it, but somehow the power that turned all the rest of us into slightly sadistic, perpetual and unapologetic sinners all the time didn't touch Alice most of the time. Oh, she had her occasional mean streaks, and man, were those brutal, but most of the time she's a chipper girl, _almost_ simple, deceptively sharp. Hell, even most of her human lovers are still alive. As she explained it to me once, with wide innocent eyes, "Once they're dead, the fun's over." She wasn't being facetious, either. I've seen some of the same guys over multiple times, and they're always still mortal, so that must be how she thinks.

She went on. "So, if I'm hearing this right, this 'Jacob' hasn't actually gone out of his way to spend any time with Bella, right? I mean, there was the beach thing, and then his dad having to drive him out there. You know what they say, right? 'Once is accident, twice is coincidence.' So you're still on the home team, you know?"

"Um…" I had little trouble sifting through her metaphors. "…yes?"

She giggled. "I mean that you don't have anything to worry about yet, Edward. So cheer up." I had to smile at that. She was just so confident and optimistic. Plus, she could see the future, so if she said everything would be okay…It made me feel a lot better about the next couple of days. She hopped off the couch seat and flounced toward the doorway. She whirled around just as she reached it, resting one hand on the jamb. "Hey Edward, you wanna 'play' later?"

I looked at her wearily. "I'm really not in the mood tonight."

"Ok," she chirped. "Maybe later then," she said as she skipped away. That's another thing I liked about Alice. When she asked, it _was_ a choice. Usually.

*Tried to make it obvious, but in case it wasn't (because I'm unsure) she grabbed his _crotch_ right there.

____________________________________________________________________________________

The next day I asked Bella more questions—about people this time. I started with her mom, and her friends in Phoenix, then broached the only question I was really interested in: who she had dated. The list was blessedly short—none, actually. When I asked if she had ever found anyone she wanted, she only said, "Not in Phoenix." I was focused on the images her mind conjured up when she said that, and was satisfied that mine rose up. Then another image—that of a Quileute with dark, dark eyes—flickered across my image, and I was uneasy again.

I abruptly changed the subject. "I won't see you in biology class."

"Why?"

"I'm leaving with Alice after lunch."

"So where are you going?" she asked, trying to sound casual, not overly-eager.

"Hunting. If I'm going to be alone with you tomorrow, I need to take every precaution I can." I offered an out. Make it her choice. "You can always cancel, you know."

**_Don't_**. "I won't." _Good doggie. _"What time will I see you tomorrow?"

"That depends…it's a Saturday, don't you want to sleep in?"

"No."

I kind of raised my eyebrows at that, but I guess that's what happens when you anticipate a date, right? "Same time as usual, then."

That disconcerting glint came into her eye again. "What are you hunting tonight?"

"Whatever we find in the park. We aren't going far." Her interest still made me uneasy.

"Hey, why are you going with Alice?"

"Alice is the most…supportive." _If you can call it that._

"And the others? What are they?"

"Incredulous, I guess." _Disdainful, mocking, they tell me I should just jump you in an alley and get it over with…_

She looked over at where my siblings were sitting. They were ignoring everyone, as usual. "They don't like me," she said. Inner Edward arrived at the party with a vengeance. _Yes, Bella, it's all about you. Every damn thing that happens in this whole stupid drama is ALL A__BOUT__ YOU. It must be nice to be you, Bella, because you're the center of everyone's universe. It's not about you at all! Actually, they couldn't care _less_ about you, except for the fact that I'm after you. But that would never occur to a self-centered bitch like you, would it?_

I only answered after I had 'him' under control again. "Aw, that's not it. They just don't understand why I can't leave you alone." _Neither do I, sometimes. _

Just then Rosalie turned her head and looked at Bella. Actually she _glared_ at Bella. The girl actually felt a thrill of fear from it, and even stopped breathing. **_Leave off, Rosalie. Let me do my thing here, _**I sent directly to her. When she didn't break eye contact, I bared my teeth and hissed; not enough to freak out anyone nearby, but I knew she could hear it. That was our signal to quit unless you really wanted to get into it later.

She quit. And Bella remembered to breathe again.

"Sorry about that," I said. "She's just…worried." _Yeah. "Worried." _"It's just that it's dangerous for more than just me if, after publicly spending so much time with you, this ends…badly." _You know, if you turn up dead somewhere, drained of blood, two distinctive marks on your neck…_I displayed what I hoped was a sort of whipped-puppy look to garner some sympathy from Bella, and hopefully take her mind off what we were just talking about. I guess I came pretty close, because she suddenly got all flustered, with a sad look on her face. She acted for a moment as if she might reach across the table and take my hands, but seemed to decide against it, and lamely put her hands in her lap.

"Do you have to leave now?" she asked, obviously looking for a topic of conversation.

"Yes. It's probably for the best. I mean, there's still fifteen minutes of that biology movie to go, and I don't think I could take any more."

I felt a rush of satisfaction as a blush crept across her cheeks. She was clearly remembering the other two class periods when we watched the movie.

She jumped a little and kind of squeaked when Alice appeared by her shoulder, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Alice," I greeted her, eyes still on Bella.

"Edward," she returned.

"Alice, Bella—Bella, Alice." I waved my hand to each as I made the mandatory introduction.

"Hello Bella! It's nice to finally meet you." I glowered at Alice. Her smile was friendly, but I thought I could sense something on the edge of her thoughts, something I didn't like. "Are you ready?"

"Nearly. I'll meet you in the car."

As she walked away, I could feel jealousy emulating off Bella, because of how graceful Alice looked. That was just Alice, though. _I could break your hip and reset it. You might walk more graceful then, Bella._

She turned back to me. "So, should I say 'have fun' or is that the wrong sentiment?"

"Have fun works as well as anything." Especially since we _would_ have fun.

"Have fun, then." Aw, how cute, she was trying to sound cheerful. I knew she wanted to attend another "biology" lesson. Oh yeah, I'm definitely on the right track here.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning." I reached out and stroked my finger down the side of her face, willing the feeling of "electricity" to shiver through her again—just something to remember me by while I was gone. And then I was gone—almost faster than she registered that I had started moving.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alice leapt—as graceful as the deer we were running down—and ran her now-claw-like fingernails along its flank. The doe was breathing heavily now, eyes rolling in panic and fear, first this way, now that, desperately trying to outrace her pursuers. Its strength flagging, the deer began slowing, its turns not as sharp or precise, footing not as sure.

Finally, I signaled to Alice to go in for the kill. She leaped onto its back, dug her fangs around its spine, and jerked her head, breaking its neck and killing it for sure. She then leapt off the body as it dropped like the sack of bones it now was, and skidded several yards before rolling to a stop.

"Now I remember why I like hunting with you," I said to her as we walked over to enjoy our hard-earned meal. "You make it look so easy. And brutal," I added, just to dig at her a bit.

She stepped in front of me and turned around to face me just as we reached our prize. "Funny, I don't remember you helping me catch it at all…I don't think you deserve any," she teased.

I went to go around her to get some food, but she forestalled me, keeping herself between me and the sustenance I craved. I moved again, and again she blocked me. At first I thought it was some new game, and it was kind of fun, but after several rounds I was starting to get irritated. "What's your game, Alice?"

"What's the matter, Edward?" she replied, still keeping herself between me and our kill. She was quicker than I was, so was easily able to keep pace with me, keeping eye contact the whole time. "Frustrated? Is it difficult, being so near what you desire, and yet, so, so far away?"

I stopped abruptly and growled, baring my fangs at her. "What are you getting at? The food's getting cold."

Her eyes bored into mine. "Just wondering if you will have the patience, tenacity, and perseverance an endeavor such as yours will require." Her look softened. "I'm on your side, Edward, but you were changed while still a teenager, and we both know what that means."

Yeah, I did. Not only does the base personality follow a turned person, but also their stage of development. In effect, a turned child will always be a child, a teen a teen, and an adult will remain at their relative level of maturity. In other words, I would always be a seventeen-year-old boy, not just in appearance but in impulses and attitudes as well. Teenage boys are stereotypically flighty and likely to move on to other things when their current fancy proves to take too long or be too much work. Alice was worried that I might do something like that, after investing a lot of time and effort into my current "project."

I hunched my shoulders sulkily. "You're the seer, why don't you tell me what happens?" I was almost pleading with her.

She smiled prettily at me. "I'll tell you after we eat." And with that she stepped aside, turned toward the deer, and offered me first pick of where to sink my teeth in.

When we finished feeding and cleaned ourselves off, she sat down with me, cross-legged, like we were having a powwow or something. Her hands were lightly clasping her knees; she almost looked like she was meditating. She looked into my eyes, and she was all serious, no levity displayed.

"It's true that I can see into the future, but it's not set in stone, especially when people act on what I've seen. Events yet to come are fluid, and subject to change from all manner of fronts, until the events in question have come to pass. Understand?" I nodded. We had had similar discussions before, and I knew more or less how her sight worked, and what the things she saw meant.

"Well, this scheme you are carrying out with Bella, if you continue from this point, will set off a chain of events that, according to what I can see, will spiral into a bottleneck that culminates into one climactic event." She was trying to spell it out as simply as possible, but still I had to concentrate very hard to make sure I really got it.

She continued. "What happens then will be entirely up to you, and what you do at that critical moment will determine if this ends in a matter of weeks, or drags on for months in a complicated web of events that will test your resolve to its very limits." Now my attention was riveted; I was almost mesmerized by her revelation.

Still she had more. "If it comes to the second option, I can't say for sure if you will succeed or fail. There are too many complications, too many choices made by too many people." Now she was speaking as if in a trance. "Life, death, wanted by some, denied by others, a race against time, a rival wolf—"

"—Hey!" I realized I had grabbed her by the shoulders, and was shaking her slightly, trying to break her out of the seer trance that she had become locked in. "Alice! Focus! Come back _here_!" I watched with relief as awareness came back into her eyes.

"E-Edward?" Her eyelashes fluttered, and she worked to refocus on me and our surroundings. "Oh, not yet…" She seemed confused, like she wasn't sure where—or when—she was. "This is before…Edward!"

Her sudden attention on me seized my curiosity. "Yes?"

She spoke slowly, enunciating every syllable to make sure I got what she was trying to tell me. "You must get control of yourself."

"What? What are you talking about? I do have control of myself."

She leaned forward and grabbed my forearms in her hands. "No, when it comes to the critical event. I can't see any details, only that Bella's life will be in danger somehow. Whether you can control yourself or not makes the difference in ending this soon or many months from now. Can you bear the consequences if it winds up going on for _months_?"

Her question left me stunned. I wasn't sure if it was rhetorical or if she expected an answer from me, and I didn't have an answer now. She suddenly sat back and shook her head slightly. "I don't expect an answer tonight, Edward, it's just a possibility I thought you should be aware of, because you're right in the middle of it."

"Okay," I said, relieved that I wouldn't have to answer right now. "So what do you think of my plan for tomorrow?"

She giggled. "Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, talk about emasculation."

"I don't think Bella would see it that way. Besides, diamonds are a girl's best friend, right?"

"Ha ha ha, right. Well, be careful with the follow-up, ok?" She leaned close to me and walked her fingers up my chin, nose and up to the crown of my head. Damn, she was cute! But she was still talking. "That will be the real test, how she responds to phase two." She kissed me lightly on the cheek. "Good luck with everything tomorrow, Edward."

I couldn't help but smile when she did that. "Thanks, Alice."

"Come on, if we don't hurry back, the others will think we're 'playing.'"

"Heaven forbid."

"Heaven has nothing to do with this." We both laughed, and ran off into the night.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was at her door soon after Charlie left. I was relieved when I saw what she was wearing—casual, practical clothing and good sturdy shoes. She would need it where we were going. I walked down the driveway to her truck while she locked the door, and I didn't bother trying to hide my expression of unease and disdain.

"We made a deal," she said smugly, noticing my hesitance. I wondered at that moment if it would seriously hurt my chances if I socked her in the mouth—just once. "Where to?" she asked as we got in.

"Take the one-oh-one north," I told her. She was nervous about where we were going, and consequently couldn't concentrate as much on driving. She compensated by driving like an old lady Sunday driver. "Were you planning to make it out of Forks before nightfall?" I asked innocently, deliberately mocking her.

She asked again where we were going, and I didn't say much except that we would be hiking five miles after the pavement ended. The thought sent alarms running through her mind. She kept imagining worse-case, hilarious scenarios: loose stones tripping her up, twisting _both_ ankles, trees reaching out and trying to strangle her, for crying out loud!

We finally reached the beginning of the trail. The weather was hot and a little muggy, so Bella took off her sweatshirt, revealing a sleeveless shirt underneath. I removed my top shirt, too. Not because I was warm, mind you, I mean the temperature really doesn't affect me either way. I just decided that if she got to show off some eye candy, I should be able to as well. I walked over and paused at the brush next to her truck. "This way."

"B-but, the trail…"

"I said there was a trail at the end of the not that we were taking it." Arguing semantics is so much fun. Or is it technicalities? Whichever, it's still fun.

"No trail?!" She was apparently horrified by the thought of tramping through wilderness.

"Eh, I won't let you get lost." _ I may get you lost on purpose…wait, is that the same thing? Huh, maybe I will get you lost, at that._

She was suddenly nervous, and between worrying about the hike and ogling my manly chest, she was having some doubts.

"Do you want to go home?" I asked, projecting an image of Charlie into her mind. I had to make sure she still thought it was her decision. She took it from there, and imagined Charlie asking her why she was back early and didn't she go to Seattle? That made the decision for her.

"No." She shook her head vigorously. Strong reaction considering it was just about actually _talking_ with her dad. Come on, it's not like he's Carlisle.

"Okay then." I led the way through the forest.

It was a little annoying, since she had to be helped constantly, or at least it seemed that way. Maybe I was just used to traveling with vampires, but this seemed almost unbearable slow, and it seemed like every article in nature was an obstacle to her. To hide my irritation I tried some more small talk.

She said something about pets, and I paid attention to that. It turned out she had had three fish before, but couldn't keep any of them alive. I imagined her swallowing three goldfish, and that made me laugh. Luckily, she thought I was laughing at the little joke she made about no more pets because the fish died.

Finally, the canopy overhead began to thin a little bit. Are we only this far? God, this girl is slow. We had been at this for hours already.

"Are we there yet?" Bella asked teasingly. Now she's trying to be funny. Fan-freakin-tastic.

"Almost. Do you see the brightness ahead?"

She peered ahead, then looked quizzically back at me. "Should I?"

"Maybe it's a bit too soon for _your_ eyes. Maybe you should get that checked out." I couldn't help taunting her about how awesome I was compared to her. _You want this, you will do anything to get me to agree to turn you._

We walked for a while more, then came up to the meadow that was our destination. I purposely hung back while she walked into it as if mesmerized, and I didn't blame her. It was a gorgeous place. The sun shone down in the break in the forest, the grass was about knee-high, soft and green. A stream gurgled nearby. It was a tranquil and peaceful place. She panicked a little upon realizing that I was no longer beside her, and images of wandering lost through the wilderness flitted through her head before she saw me. She instantly relaxed, then tensed up again when she remembered why we were here: I would finally reveal the secret of my hiding from the sunshine.

She stood expectantly, exposed out in the middle of the meadow. I waited until all her attention was focused on me, then stepped out from under the trees into the sunlight.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

That's it! That's where chapter 12 ends! I actually laugh all over again every time I get to Bella and her goldfish. I have to admit I am immensely proud of this chapter. More characters introduced, more build-up, more scheming! More implied vampire debauchery! You know you love it. If you didn't, you wouldn't have read this far in the first place. Shooting for posting 13 sometime later this week, but I'm a little burned out from all the original stuff in this one. Here's hopin'. Luv ya!

Comments, especially praising ones, are a particular kind of sustenance to fanfic writers. We need it every once in a while, so if you want more, please comment.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I stepped out into the sunlight, becoming "Edwardo McSparklepants." Bella's eyes widened with awe, and she slowly drew in a deep breath, then seemed to just hold it for a while…and then she fell backward on the grass in a dead faint. Gah! She really _had_ quit breathing! I raced to her side, and relaxed when I realized she had started again, as her autonomic system kicked in with her unconsciousness. Well, at least _something_ about her was completely predictable. She would likely just wake up on her own.

I lay down in the grass until she came to, having really nothing better to do. Bella woke up and looked frantically around, only calming down when she espied my relaxed form nearby. She pulled her knees up to her chest and stared at my sparkling self. And stared. And then she stared some more. At least she was thinking about how gorgeous I was. I never realized how tense and anxious I was about this moment until it all went well, and I could just relax for a while. Suddenly-! Oh, wait, never mind, she was just tucking a few stray tendrils of hair behind her ear; and she's still staring at me. _Oh, yeah, you know you want this, baby_.

I was lying on my back with my arms spread on the grass. I was instantly aware when she moved, reaching out hesitantly and stroking the back of my hand. I couldn't help but smile a little at her touch. So shy. So virginal. "I don't scare you?" I asked.

"No more than usual." I smiled wider at her response.

She grew bolder now, tracing the contours of my forearm with trembling fingertips. "Do you mind?"

"No," I sighed. "You can't imagine how that feels." You may find this hard to believe, but those feather-light touches were surprisingly arousing. It felt so good to be so relaxed, and I was done with complicated thoughts for a while. I was used to the rough, playful, hot surging of vampire partners and one-night stands, but this…it felt like an entirely new game, a game of "touch me, tease me." I found myself wondering if her tracings would take her up my arm to my shoulders, and where they would go from there. In short, pleasant for the time being, and at the moment I didn't want it to end. She reached out with her other hand to turn mine over, and I just focused on feeling as she turned my hand over again, studying it.

She kept on fiddling with my hand.

Okay, bored now. "Tell me what you're thinking," I whispered, trying not to ruin the "moment." It was actually over now for me, but that's not really the point, is it? As long as she still feels it…?

"I was wishing I could know what you were thinking…and I was wishing that I could believe that you were real." _I could pinch you, if that would help. Or punch you, whatever, I'm flexible._ "And I was wishing that I wasn't afraid."

I sat up, my hand still enclosed in both of hers. "What are you afraid of?" She inhaled the whiff of my breath that reached her, savoring it as if it were ambrosia.

A shaft of some kind of pure feeling pierced through me.

Good feeling's gone.

Almost before I knew it I was back under the shade of the trees, nearly trembling with shock. I can't believe I let my guard down so low! I had actually been so focused on my own feelings being aroused by her that I forgot to watch how _she_ was responding to _me_! And losing focus of _that_ could ruin everything. And I do mean everything!

"I'm…sorry, Edward," she called out softly to me. Oh good, she thinks it's _her_ fault. Whew! There's a load off.

"Give me a moment," I called back, willing myself to calm and go back to the place where scheming happened. I slowly walked back and stopped several feet away from her. "Sorry. Would you understand what I meant if I said I was only human?"

She nodded, but I could sense the growing realization of danger in her, and the adrenaline that suddenly started flowing through her veins. _All right, time to _arouse_ some emotion in _her_._

I zipped over so that I was inches from her face, standing over her. "I'm the world's best predator, aren't I? Everything about me invites you in—my voice, my face, even my smell." At this point I had leaned so far in our noses were practically touching. I looked her square in the eyes.

"As if I need any of that!" I took off and did a lap around the meadow, going slowly enough that Bella could just see that I had actually left my original position. _Are you watching, Bella? _

"As if you could outrun me!" I reached up with deliberate purpose and ripped a two-foot-thick branch from the trunk of a tree next to me. I tested the balance, then threw it against another tree, where it shattered and caused that tree to sway against the breeze. _Are you paying attention to this? _

"As if you could fight me off." **_You can not escape me_**_. _I moved again to stand in front of her, and she stared up at me, both awed (and odd) and terrified. At the same time, she was drawn to—attracted to—what I was. A faint sense of foreboding crept through me at the realization that she desired to be what I was—even if _she_ didn't know it yet.

I couldn't leave her there, quivering with fear, so I searched for some comforting words. "I'm sorry." I stood there kind of awkwardly as she just continued looking up at me. I tried again. "I promise…I swear not to hurt you." _Any more than necessary. _I sat down in front of her, moved until our eyes were level. "Please forgive me. You caught me off guard." That much was true. "I'm on my best behavior now."

Apparently she was struck speechless, because although I thought this was where she was supposed to say something, she still said nothing.

The silence grew uncomfortable for me. I mean, had she gone catatonic or something? Besides breathing (thank God) or blinking, she wasn't moving a muscle.

"Are you all right?" I asked, sliding my hand into hers to give her something else to focus on. She looked down at her hand, then up at me, and down at my hand again, idly tracing patterns into my palm. Too bad for her, I was way past the point where that might have affected me. "So where were we, before I behaved so rudely?" I asked, inviting her to engage in intimate conversation.

"I honestly can't remember," she said breathlessly.

"We were talking about why you were afraid, besides being afraid of me."

"I was afraid because…I can't stay with you. And I'm afraid that I'd like to stay with you, much more than I should." _As long as you want that more than you want to be turned, that's fine; however…_

"Well, I'm essentially a selfish creature. After all, it's what I do." *_Snicker* _"Why don't we be selfish together? I crave your company too much to stay away, like I should." _Did that line just come out of my mouth? Gaaaaaag!_

"I'm glad."

_Hrm? Does she think I'm smitten with her or something? Time to show her otherwise._ I pounced, tackling her backward in the knee-high grass. We landed, her on her back, me leaning over her, my hands clasped around her wrists. This position—commonly associated with vampire attacks—was instinctual to me, and the urge to feed on Bella was suddenly so strong that I had to close my eyes and swallow, fighting down my bloodlust.

When I had my control back, I opened my eyes and looked intently into hers. I bent my head to whisper directly into her ear. "It's not only your company I crave! Never forget _that_!" I think her ear was one of her erogenous zones; her stomach muscles contracted and a tiny tremor ran through her body as I whispered in her ear. Her fragile vulnerability thrilled my hunting urges. I continued. "Never forget I am more dangerous to you than I am to anyone else." I sat up then, faster than she could register, leaving her lying there bewildered and slightly panting for breath. I needed for the moment to keep her off her balance, so I could keep mine.

She sat up, still a little out-of-sorts. "W-what did you mean, that last bit?"

I tilted my head up, thinking of exactly what to say. "Hmm, how do I explain…? You know how everyone enjoys different flavors of ice cream? Some like chocolate, others strawberry?" _Mmm, strawberry shampoo—shut up, brain! _"You see, to us, everyone has a different flavor, an essence, if you will." _And you, dah-ling, are my 'flavor of the week.' _"Well, it's kind of like when you've been craving your favorite food all day, and you come home and you can smell it being prepared just the way you like it. You walk into the dining room, and your mom serves it attractively on a platter." She had closed her eyes now, and was really getting into the 'imagining' bit. "You're about to dig in, when you're told that every time you take you a bite, your father will kick a kitten in the face," I concluded, deliberately jolting her out of her reverie. Carlisle had warned me that any major opposition to me would come from either her father or romantic rivals, so this was my attempt at driving whatever wedge was between them even farther between.

She stared at me, horrified.

"Don't give me that look. That's a lot like how this is for me. If I indulge myself with you, something—some_one_—innocent will get hurt."

Now her look was…strange. "Couldn't you think of a better analogy?"

"Ok, how about a drug addict, then? I know it will only cause trouble in the long-term, but I can't seem to stay away from you."

She looked cutely at me now. "So what you're saying is, I'm your brand of heroin?" she said teasingly. _Good Lord, does she want to be? Why not?_

I gave her a toothy grin. "Yes, you are _exactly_ my brand of heroin." _More like marijuana; I can quit whenever I want. _

"Does that happen often?" she asked.

"It happened to Emmett; twice, he said."

"What happened? What did he do?"

I looked away with a pained expression on my face. "We don't talk about those times." That was quite literally true. Suffice to say, Emmett was in a similar position that I'm in now. He wanted to go after them, but Rosalie had "bound" him to her to enough of an extent that she reined him in. So now, we really do not talk about it, because doing so would subject one to a bear hug from Emmett that was really more "bear" than "hug." The reconstruction takes a little while, even for vampire physiology; for humans, usually not at all.

She looked away sadly. "I guess I know." _Good, she interpreted that exactly the way I intended her to._

"So, before…if we'd met, say, in a dark alley or something…?"

I caught her eyes with my own and willed her to not look away. "It took everything I had not to jump up in the middle of that class full of children and—" I didn't really know where to go from there so I started over. "When you walked past me, I could have ruined everything Carlisle had done—" _to me _"—for us. I could hardly control myself. Heh, you must have thought I was possessed." _Oh for—did I just chuckle or something there? How much longer are we gonna do this? I'm not sure how much more I can take._

"You're mostly right. I couldn't understand…how you could hate me so quickly."

"In that one hour, I thought of a hundred different ways to lure you from the room with me, to get you alone. And I fought them each back, thinking of my family, what I could do to them." I felt like I should be waving a sword around of something, this a pretty ridiculous speech, but she was buying it, so, Tally-ho! "I had to run out, to get away before I could speak words that would make you follow." I gauged the expression on her face, her current mental state, and decided to drop the final proverbial shoe. "And you would have come."

"Without a doubt," she breathed, the first smart she's said since we met, I think.

"I decided then to run. I ran straight to Carlisle, at the hospital, to tell him I was leaving. I traded cars with him," _without permission_, "because he had a full tank of gas and I didn't want to stop…By the next morning I was in Alaska. I spent two days there with some old acquaintances." _More like "acquaintances." _"But I was homesick. I convinced myself it was weak to run away. Besides, who were you, an insignificant little girl, to chase me from the place I wanted to be? So I came back…" And really got it from Carlisle. Tch.

"I wanted you to forget my behavior that first day, if possible, so I tried to talk with you like I would with any person. I was eager actually…Of course, then you were nearly crushed to death in front of my eyes. At the time, all I could think was, 'Not her.'"

You want to know how I was able to spill all that rubbish? Alice helped me, actually, even if she didn't know it. She spun me a tale the previous night about how romantic it was, and how it must have gone between us, and it really was cute and romantic, even if it was all a fairy tale. Still, it must have gone over well, because I could sense compassion welling up inside Bella, for the 'poor, tortured soul' who was supposed to be me. _Oh, Bella, if you only knew…_

Now I was feeling confident enough to go out on a limb—a small one, but possible progress. I took her hands in both of mine. "Bella, you have become the most important thing to me now." That was true. "In fact, the most important thing ever." That, maybe not so much.

"You already know how I feel, of course." _It's not good enough unless you can say it out loud, Bella dear. _"I'm here, which kind of means I would rather die than stay away from you." She frowned. "I'm an idiot."

"You _are_ an idiot."

She whacked me playfully. "Hey, you're not supposed to say that!"

I held up my hands in a gesture of innocence. "Hey, you said it, not me! I just agreed with you."

"Well, you're not—supposed—to agree—with me." She punctuated each phrase with another smack at me. They weren't hard to evade, but then, they weren't supposed to be. I just laughed at her efforts, and pretty soon she was laughing, too. Soon after we were both laughing at nothing in particular, me sitting up pivoting on my arms, Bella curled up on the ground holding her stomach, too weak to do anything else.

Finally our laughter died down, and I was struck by a sudden thought: _Was that a "moment" we had just now? Oh, God…_

"Why…"

Hm? Oh, she was trying to say something. "Yes?"

"Why did you run from me, you know, earlier? What exactly did I do wrong?"

"It…wasn't anything in particular, just how close you were." _Please be plausible…_ "Most humans instinctively shy away from us, so up-close-and-personal, so I wasn't expecting you to come so close. Then the smell of the blood radiating so close to your skin, at your throat—" I stopped then, a little worried that this was taking it too far.

She tucked her chin down, as if trying to prevent such "weakness" on my part from happening again.

The gesture was so cute it was reminiscent of Alice, and actually made me laugh a little. "No really, it was more surprise than anything else." We both grew silent after that exchange, and it stretched between for a few comfortable moments. Then I realized Bella was growing expectant for—something, I don't think she even knew. Oh, right, this is where the lovin' is supposed to begin.

I raised my hand and placed it gently on the side of her neck. She grew very still, but her pulse and blood pressure increased. "You see," I said teasingly, "Perfectly fine."

I could hear her blood pulsing, stronger as my hand lingered on her neck. The fact that such a tiny amount of intimate physical contact could induce such a strong reaction suggested that she had never known a lover's touch. Good. This would be so much easier.

I brushed her cheek with my other hand, then slid the first hand up until I cradled her face between them.

"Be very still," I whispered, inviting her, despite my words, to join me in our illicit dance.

Slowly, keeping eyes locked with her, I leaned toward her until I knew she was waiting for my kiss. I broke eye contact with her and turned my head, moving it down until I could rest my cheek against the hollow at her throat.

I could tell she felt disappointed—and a little gypped—at the implied and withdrawn promise. The sound of her blood rushing through her at that moment would have been loud even to a human in my position. To me it had the intensity of hydraulic machinery running just in the next room. I almost flinched away, but that would have _definitely_ ruined the love-making I was trying to do here.

With deliberate slowness, I slid my hands down the sides of her neck, caressing my way down. She shivered as goose flesh rippled down her body. I moved my hands lower until they rested on her shoulders, giving her a slight—very slight—feeling of imprisonment. I felt her stomach muscles contract a bit, and her stance wavered slightly—she couldn't quite hold herself steady. Excellent.

I moved my head slowly until my ear was positioned right over her heart—let her make what she would of _that_. She began to tremble slightly, and her heart rate became somewhat erratic.

To me, well, how could I put this? If her neck was loud, her heart was practically a cacophony of liquid under pressure. This was like standing in a chamber of hydraulic pumps next door to a Laundromat. From this position I could hear fluid (mostly blood, presumably) moving to and from almost everywhere in her body. Her extremities all blended into one droning sound, her torso sounded like heavy dishes being dropped onto thick carpet, and above it all, the THUMP-thump, THUMP-thump, of her heart as the chambers contracted and relaxed in unsteady rhythm.

I don't know how long I stayed that way in actual time, but I didn't let up until her heart had slowed down again. Then I released her.

"Was that very hard for you?" she asked.

Hm, what would be an appropriate response? "Not nearly as bad as I imagined it would be. And you?"

"No, it wasn't bad, for me," she replied, a little too quickly. _But not as good as you wanted, was it, you lusty bitch? _

Then she was reaching up and touching my face. "Don't move," she whispered. _Oh, I get it. It's your turn, now. Fair enough. _I closed my eyes and let her fingers roam.

She began by caressing my cheek. She stroked my eyelids, over and under my eyes, around my nose, and then the shape of my lips, prompting them to part slightly. I caught a whiff of her skin's scent, in my nose and on my tongue, and my mouth watered. At that moment, I wanted her. I wanted to consume her in every way a vampire could. And at that moment, she was mine for the taking.

**_Don't do it, Edward. _**_Carlisle__?! That _jolted me out of my lust. And blood-lust. I was glad I had my eyes closed; the surprise would have definitely shown in my eyes. I cast about with my telepathy, and caught his signature somewhere beyond the edge of the forest. How long had that voyeuristic bastard been watching? **_Don't get me wrong, _**he continued, **_My only interest in this is to add another "member" to the "family." But what about you? Would you want to go through the whole process again? How many more "camping trips," Edward? _**A graphic depiction of what had happened last time played across front of his mind.

****I impulsively pulled Bella into an embrace. I didn't think I could school my expression away from the rage that threatened to overtake it, and I did not have a good enough explanation if she saw it. **_Drop dead, you sadistic bastard._**

**_ Too late! _**I heard him say, laughing as his "voice" drifted away. He was leaving, and at least he had distracted me from ruining my whole deception, even if he had also pissed me off at the same time.

Bella relaxed in my arms, apparently oblivious to my mental turmoil. I didn't say anything, afraid that my thoughts would overflow from my brain and out my lips; and that wouldn't sound good, coming from nowhere, or so it would seem to Bella. We stayed that way for some time, until the day grew toward evening and the light began fading.

I pulled away a bit and looked down at her. "It's time to go."

She looked around, surprised at the passage of time. "Oh yeah, you're right!"

I thought about our trek coming up here, and how it would go if we went back the same way. _Oh God, no. _Then I had an idea. It seemed such an inspiration I could almost see the light bulb come on over my head. "Can I show you something?"

"Show me what?"

"I'll show you how _I_ travel in the forest." Her expression was dubious. "Don't worry, you'll be very safe, and we'll get to your truck much faster." _Faster is key. _

"Will you turn into a bat?" she asked suspiciously.

I laughed, because if I didn't I would have had to growl. _One more question like that, and I will leave you out here, I swear. _"Like I haven't heard _that_ one before!"

"Right, I'm sure you get that all the time," she said wryly.

"Come on, you little coward, climb on my back." I crouched down to assist her.

She climbed on hesitantly, clamping her legs and arms around me so tight it was like a death grip. I held onto her as well so she wouldn't fall off. And then…

I began to run.

This is one of the awesome things about being a vampire. I moved nearly effortlessly, winging through the forest at breakneck speed. To Bella it was like an insane, death-defying carnival ride. Trees whizzed by us so fast they were a blur, and it seemed like we missed them by mere inches. This was easy enough for me, but I knew it was taking its toll on Bella. I could feel her heart pounding, sounding a sharp staccato in my sensitive ears. There was only so long her fragile human body could take this kind of extreme speed. Good thing we weren't going to do this for long.

Very soon we were back at the truck, having covered our hours-long hike in a matter of minutes.

"Exhilarating, isn't it?" I said, slightly teasing.

"I think…I need to lie down."

I set her down, and she staggered, unsteady on her feet. I helped her sit down.

"How do you feel?"

"Ugh, dizzy, I think." Small wonder; she was really pale, too.

"Try putting your head between your knees." I don't know if that was supposed to help; I'd heard it somewhere before, I guess. When she had regained some color, I decided that she had earned some of what she had wanted before.

"Bella, I was thinking, while I was running…"

"About not hitting the trees, I hope." Sarcasm? That must mean she was feeling better.

I chuckled. "No. I was thinking I wanted to try something."

I gently took her face in my hand again.

She closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting.

I didn't kiss her right away, deliberately held back, waiting until she started wondering if I was really going to do it. I opened myself to her thoughts, gauging what would be the perfect moment. There it was.

A moment before she would have opened her eyes I pressed my lips lightly against hers.

Her response was immediate and almost explosive. Her skin flushed, breath gasped out, and she was kissing me open-mouthed, fingers entwined in my hair, pressed as close against me as she could, trying to pull me closer to her. I was startled for a moment. This girl could give that waitress a run for her money! Then my sanity came back, and I remembered I couldn't let it go as far as she—and I, for that matter—wanted to. _Not yet, my lusty pet. Not just yet. _

I gently but firmly pushed her away until there was space between us again. "Sorry," she breathed. "Should I…?" She tried to disengage herself completely, but I held her fast.

"No, just wait a moment, please." I held her close taunted her, not letting her get closer, or move away, both of which she would rather do. This near-closeness was an unusual kind of torture for her. "There," I said, "Now I'm in control of myself again."

She looked away from me. "I wish I could say the same. Sorry."

"Well, you _are_ only human."

Her eyes flashed. "Thanks, _so_ much."

I stood, and reached down to help her up. She was still a little unsteady.

"Maybe you should let me drive. I can drive better than you on your best day, and besides, you're still not steady."

She curled her fingers around the key possessively. "Nope. Not a chance."

She tried to step around me, but I easily caught her around the waist. I spoke calmly, as if explaining something to a small child. "Bella, I've already expended a great deal of personal effort at this point to keep you alive. I'm not about to let you behind the wheel of a vehicle when you can't even walk straight. Besides, friends don't let friends drive drunk," I added, mocking her again.

"Drunk?" She looked at me skeptically.

"Why, you're intoxicated by my very presence, of course." **_Just give me the keys already, Bella._**

****She sighed. "I can't argue with that."

"Very sensible of you," I said, deliberately condescending.

"Are you not affected at all? By my presence?" she whined. I guess she didn't want to be the only one off-balance.

Too bad for her. I bent my face to hers again, and brushed my lips slowly along her jaw, until she was almost whimpering with longing.

"Either way," I said, "I have better reflexes."

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That's the end of that chapter. Hope you all enjoyed my interpretation of events. I guess Darkward is falling for Bella, a little bit. Maybe I should just say he's attracted to her. I think there's a difference. There really was no other way with this chapter, keeping to canon, anyway. Just because of the whole "making love" bit, I can't say I'm happy with this chapter, but I think this is the happiest I will be with it.

Like it? Hate it? I want to know about it! Hehe, my story might even change based on the feedback I get from my fans...


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

As we drove home, I kept glancing at her—mostly because she kept glancing at me, and it was making me more than a little uncomfortable.

"Are you ever going to tell me how old you are?" Whoa, that was abrupt.

"Does it matter much?"

"No, but I still wonder…"

I thought for a moment, then decided it didn't matter much if she knew. "I was born in Chicago in 1901. Carlisle found me in a hospital in the summer of 1918. I was seventeen, dying of Spanish influenza." I heard her gasp.

"I don't remember much, but I do remember how it felt, when Carlisle saved me. It's not an easy thing, not something you forget."

"What about your parents?"

"Already dead from the disease. I was alone, and that's why he chose me. No one would miss me when I was gone."

"How did he…save you?"

"He turned me. It was difficult, and for me, very, very painful. He acted out of loneliness. That's usually the reason behind the choice." _That, or boredom. _"I was the first in Carlisle's family, though he found Esme soon after. She fell from a cliff. Somehow her heart was still beating when they brought her to the hospital."

"So you have to be dying, then, to become…?" I could see the direction her thoughts were taking, and headed it off as quickly as I could.

"No! That's just Carlisle. He would never do that to someone who had another choice." _Because if they do, they're much harder to control. _"He says it's easier, though, if the blood is weak."

"What about Emmett and Rosalie?"

"Carlisle brought Rosalie to the family next. I guess he was hoping she and I would take to each other, but it never became more than a brother-sister thing." I mentally snickered as I said that. Brothers and sisters traditionally do not engage in the types of activities that we often do. I went on. "Two years later she found Emmett. She was hunting in the Appalachians, where we lived at the time, and found a bear about to finish him off. She carried him more than a hundred miles back to Carlisle, because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to do it herself." _And she wanted some mental assistance from little ol' me. _

Our family is composed of a weird "pyramid scheme" of manipulation, with Carlisle at the top. Rosalie, Esme, and I are in the second rung, Emmett is on the third, and since Alice and Jasper kind of showed up on their own, I'm not really sure where they stand.

"But she made it," Bella prompted, and I could see the fairy tale ending going through her mind. Ah, how amusing these young, innocent minds are.

"Yes," I said, following along with her interpretation. "She saw something in his face that made her strong enough. And they've been together ever since. Sometimes they live separately from us, as a married couple. But the younger we pretend to be, the longer we can stay in any given place." That last part was totally true.

"And Alice and Jasper?"

"They are two very rare creatures. They found us without any guidance. Jasper belonged to a _very_ kind of different vampire family, and it just depressed him, so he wandered off on his own. Alice found him. Like me, she has gifts above and beyond the norm for our kind."

"Really?" She stared at me, fascinated. "But I thought you were the only one who could hear people's thoughts."

"I am. Alice's gifts lie in a different direction. She _sees_ things; things that might happen, that are coming in the future. But it's very subjective, since the future isn't set in stone. Things can change."

"What kinds of things does she see?"

"She saw Jasper and knew that he was looking for her before he knew it himself." _More like that he would be her pet, in time. _"She saw Carlisle and our family, and they came together to find us. She's most sensitive to non-humans. She always sees, for example, when another group of our kind is coming near. And any threat they may pose."

"Are there a lot of…your kind?" She sounded a little scared, which was sensible of her, considering the question.

"No, not many." Didn't want too much competition for the food supply, after all. "But most won't settle in any one place. Only those like the Cullens, who don't hunt humans—" _not regularly, anyway,_ "—can live together among humans for any length of time. There's only one other family like us that we know of, and they live in a small village in Alaska. For a while we all lived together, but soon they were too many to remain inconspicuous."

"And the others? The ones who _do_ hunt humans?"

"Nomads, typically. We've all done it at some time or another. We run across the other family now and then, because most of us prefer the North."

"Why?" We were now parked outside her house.

I looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. "Were you there this afternoon? Walking down the street in southern California would gain me a lot of attention. We choose mostly sunless places for a reason." _Because any other supernatural creatures would pee themselves from laughing so hard if they discovered that we sparkle. Like a disco ball. _"It's nice to go outside in the day, when we can. Night gets old after eighty-some-odd years."

"Hence the legend about only coming out at night."

"Exactly."

"And Alice came from another family, like Jasper?"

"No, and that's a mystery. Alice doesn't remember her human life at all. And she doesn't know who created her. She awoke alone. Whoever made her walked away, and none of us understand why, or how, he could. If she hadn't had that other sense, if she hadn't seen Jasper and Carlisle and known that she would someday become one of us, she probably would have turned into a total savage."

Actually, that wasn't the total truth. The family has always suspected that the combination of having the visions and being in the mental facility drove her insane, and that that insanity carried over to her personality as a vampire. I mean, seriously, have you ever seen pictures or read about how they used to equip and run mental institutions? If you weren't crazy when you went in, you certainly would be inside of a month after staying in one of those. That would explain her moods of savage brutality—the insanity coming out for a brief visit.

Suddenly, her stomach growled. That was a relief, because I had nearly exhausted all my current stories of "the family Cullen."

"Sorry, I'm keeping you from dinner," I said softly.

"I'm fine, really."

"I've never spent much time around anyone who eats food. I forget." That was true. Generally we stick with a mortal long enough for them to eat once—and then for us to eat once. And then the human doesn't need to eat anymore. Because they're dead.

I was struck by a mischievous thought. "May I come in?"

"Would you like to?" I guess she was feeling mischievous as well.

"Yes, if it's all right."

We walked up to the house, and before she could do anything, I unlocked the house ahead of her.

"Oh, the door was unlocked?"

"No, I used the key from under the eave."

She stepped inside, flicked on the light, and turned to look quizzically at me. She was sure she'd never shown me where that key was.

"Were you spying on me?"

"What else is there to do at night?" I said suggestively. I expected her to be morally outraged, especially at the implication I deliberately made. I was peeved and a little confused when she didn't really say anything about it. Eventually my mind drifted to what I would do later tonight.

She puttered about, getting some leftovers for dinner. "How often?"

"Hmm?" The question pulled me out of my reverie.

"How often did you come here?" And _there's_ the question I was waiting for.

"I come here almost every night."

She whirled, an expression of horror and embarrassment on her face. "Why?!"

"You're interesting when you sleep. You talk."

"No," she groaned. I was enjoying making her uncomfortable. She was kinda cute that way.

I tried to look suitably contrite. "Are you very angry with me?"

"That depends!"

"On?" I asked after a few moments of silence.

"On what you heard!"

She was slowly moving toward hysteria, and I didn't want to have to deal with that, so I went over and gently took her hands.

"Please don't be upset," I said softly. "You miss your mother; you worry about her; when it rains, the sound makes you restless; you used to talk about home a lot, but not so often now."

"Anything else?" she demanded.

I wondered if I should try it. "You did say my name." I guess I decided I should.

She sighed. "A lot?"

"How much do you mean by 'a lot', exactly?" I teased.

"Oh no!" Now she was even more mortified. Then I could hear the car coming; it was still a ways off, but would be here soon. I didn't want to leave while she still felt like this; happy feelings only! Then I remembered something Alice told me: "Girls like hearing you say that you dream about them." Hmm. I'd already told her I don't dream.

I pulled her gently against me, and whispered in her ear. "Don't be so self-conscious. If I _could_ dream, it would be about you. And I'm not ashamed of it." _Thank you, __Alice__! _

Just then Bella heard the car coming up the drive, and saw the headlights in the window.

"Should your father know I'm here?" I asked.

"I'm not sure…"

"Another time then," I promised, then disappeared, as only vampires can.

"Edward!" she hissed.

I just laughed, and then hid myself away in her room.

____________________________________________________________

I lay on her bed in her room, mentally preparing myself for making love to Bella again tonight (in the old sense of the word, before "make love, not war"), similar to what we had done this afternoon. I thought back to my "training" session with Alice and Rosalie, and the uninvited guest. The concept that one could be driven to frenzy without any actual sexual contact—at all—was a foreign one to me. So the two girls volunteered to demonstrate to me how that could be so. We arranged a play time.

The Cullen house has a "rumpus room" in the basement, with all manner of accessories to get kinky with. The one we chose for this exercise was a platform set up against the wall. It had a thick soft pad, and chains bolted in the four corners, two bolted into the concrete foundation at the head, two bolted to the structure itself at the foot. In short, a bed equipped for bondage play.

I was dubious about the need for such equipment, but Alice made a very convincing argument: "Edward, you love this kind of play too much; you will not stay still like we need you to for this." So bondage it was. I lay patiently, naked, while they fixed my wrists and ankles into the padded manacles. They were padded because every so often one of us brought a human playmate down here that was into this. I became more than dubious when Rosalie whipped out a bandana and tied it over my eyes. "Hey, is this really necessary?"

"More fun for us," she replied.

"Very funny, Rosalie, take it off."

Silence.

"I'm not kidding, take it off. Alice, take off this blindfold, will ya?" I couldn't hear anybody in the room. "Alice? Rosalie?" I cast about for their mental "voices." They were no longer near me. "Is this some sick game you're playing?"

"I'm afraid they're not the ones playing, Edward," I heard just as I felt the subtle air displacement that meant someone had entered the room. CARLISLE?!

Immediately I began pulling at my bonds, straining against the heavy metal chains. I did NOT want to be bound and helpless like this before him, of all people! I could feel my muscles bunching, hear the grating of the metal scraping on the concrete foundation, and though some small cement particles did get ground out by the bolts from all my twisting, they held. These were, after all, designed to restrain vampires.

"What are you doing here, you sick bastard?"

His tone was slightly admonishing. "Edward, is that really any way to talk to your father? Especially when you're in such a vulnerable position…"

His implication sent me into another round of trying to break free. The chains had some give, but not nearly as much as I would have liked.

"Really, though, I'm here because I'm a much better person for this than either Alice or Rosalie."

I scowled, briefly wondering who had told him about this.

"Rosalie filled me in," he said, as if he could read my thoughts instead of the other way around. Well, usually the other way around. Right now Carlisle was concentrating on the song "O When the Saints Go Marching In." Few know it, but running a song continuously like that can be an effective deterrent against mind-readers. Damn him.

He circled the platform, still speaking. "The reason I decided I would be a better candidate is because this exercise requires that the one being teased have strong emotions aimed toward the one doing the teasing. You don't really have sufficiently strong emotions of any kind toward either one of them."

I spoke through my teeth. "And you're actually suggesting that I feel these things for you?"

"Well, not the like, love, or desire, but we have to work with what we've got, and _those_ emotions are still plenty strong." He leaned down so his mouth was against my ear and whispered, "Shall we begin?"

My entire body stiffened with that last sentence. I had no idea what he was going to do. Suddenly I felt his finger slide up my foot, lightly skimming from my heel to my toes, tracing the arch of my foot. Then it was gone, and he was moving once again, and with my eyes covered all I could do was to wait for him to touch me again. It's not like I could do anything to stop him. I lay, tense and frustrated, wondering what new torture this was.

There he was again! This time, he ran his fingers over my collar bone, from right to left, even tracing over the hollow at the base of my throat. I tried to strain away from his touch, but I couldn't move far in these chains. He continued, I don't know for how long, but it seemed like hours. His touch varied between feather-light and blatant caressing, now pressing his hand against the span of my waist, now feeling my jaw, always keeping away from any body part that might be thought of as sexual.

Eventually I wanted that kind of touch. My body was aroused and getting desperate. The nerves on the surface of my skin were at a fever pitch, just waiting for his next touch. I was thrashing my head from side to side, barely able to silence the longing I wanted to express. He walked his fingers slowly down the center of my chest to my navel, and just when I thought he would touch—and then he lifted his hand away. He even climbed over me at one point, hovering just beyond where I would be able to physically feel him, but he still never touched me, even in that position. Finally, I really couldn't take it anymore. I started practically screaming. "Just finish it, Carlisle! Stop teasing me and finish it! Let me come!"

"Tch, tch, Edward, now that would defeat the purpose of this exercise." He ran his hand down my side, ending by drawing a circle around my hip bone. "The point of this is that it drives you crazy, with no orgasm at the end."

"Damn it, Carlisle, I get it, now end this, one way or the other, please!"

I could imagine him with closed eyes, basking in the confession I just gave. "You know how I love it when you beg. Okay. That's all for now." He walked away, leaving me chained to the platform, only one or two steps away from a massive orgasm. Oh, how I loathed him in that moment!

A couple hours later Rosalie came down and released me. "So, did you have fun with Carlisle?"

"We had a blast. Does the word "vengeance" mean anything to you?"

She laughed. "Is that a threat, dear brother?"

I glared at her when I removed the blindfold. "It's a promise."

She flashed me a saucy smile. "Mmm, I can't wait…"

_______________________________________________________

My flashback was interrupted by Bella entering her room. She ran to the window and threw it open, looking out into the night. "Edward?" she whispered.

"Yes?"

She jumped and whirled, putting her hand to her chest.

"Sorry."

"Just give me a minute to restart my heart."

I walked over and picked her up by her upper arms, then sat her on the bed beside me. "Why don't you sit with me for a while?"

She suddenly looked down at herself and thought about her current state—grimy, outside dirt all over—and said, "Can I have a minute to freshen up?"

"Certainly."

She ran out of the room and around the bathroom, brushing her teeth, showering, trying to 'pretty up' or something, and finally went downstairs—specifically to say good night to Charlie? That seemed a little odd and out of character for her. After saying good night, she raced up the stairs and into the bedroom, closing the door tightly behind her.

I took in her new appearance—damp hair, slightly worn sleeping shirt. "Nice," I said, a touch mockingly.

"Thanks," she replied sarcastically. She sat cross-legged beside me.

"What was all that downstairs for?"

"Charlie thinks I'm sneaking out."

"Oh. Why?"

"Apparently, I look a little overexcited."

"Naaah." I lifted her chin, giving her face thorough once-over. "You look very warm, actually." Let the crazy-making begin! I leaned forward and laid my cheek next to hers, inciting a quick flush to her face. Her breath caught and became uneven. I could sense she wanted to ask some questions, but her mind had a hard time making anything coherent.

"It seems…easier for you to be close to me, now."

"Do you think so?" I moved my mouth down and back toward her ear, and lightly brushed back her hair. The sensation sent a slight shiver down her spine. She inhaled sharply when I kissed the hollow beneath her ear.

"Much, much easier," she breathed, when she could exhale again. "So I was wondering…"

She whimpered when I began tracing her collarbone, like Carlisle did with me, and she lost her train of thought.

"Why…why is that, do you think?"

Her tremulous question made me chuckle. "Mind over matter."

She pulled back suddenly, startling me. "Did I do something wrong?" I asked. _No way!_

"No—the opposite. You're driving me crazy."

I couldn't prevent the slow smile from creeping up. "Reeeally?"

"Ugh! Would you like a round of applause?"

"I just…never imagined anything like this. I didn't believe I would ever find someone I wanted to be with me…"

"But how can it be so easy now? Just this afternoon…"

"Well, it's not _easy_, per se, but once I'd decided that I _was_ strong enough, that I could hold that part back…" _See the poor, tortured vampire, Bella? Feel sorry for him! Tell him you want to be with him, remain with him!_

"So you're totally in control now?"

"I told you, mind over matter. I'm still trying, though. If it gets to be too much, I'm fairly sure I'll be able to leave…And it will be harder tomorrow. I've grown desensitized from being around you all day. After I go, I'll have to start from scratch in the morning."

"Don't go away, then," she said impulsively. She could still feel the heat from my earlier caresses, and she wanted more, I could tell.

"That suits me. Bring on the shackles—I'm your prisoner." As I said it, though, I imprisoned _her_, encompassing her wrists with my hands. My unspoken threat lingered in the air. _You can't escape me. I am stronger and faster than you could ever hope to be as a weak, puny human. _The contradiction between action and speech prompted me to laugh—just a little.

"You seem more…optimistic than usual. I haven't seen you like this before," she said, trying to subtly remove her wrists from my grasp.

I didn't let go. "Isn't it supposed to be like this?" I played excited and boyish; she had to think this was all some kind of epiphany to me. "The glory of first love, and all that. It's incredible, isn't it, the difference between reading about something, seeing it in the pictures, and experiencing it?"

She nodded. "Very different. More forceful than I imagined."

"For example, jealousy. I've read about it, seen actors portray it in a thousand different ways. I thought I understood it clearly. Then…Do you remember the day Mike asked you to the dance?"

She nodded. "The day you started talking to me again."

"I was surprised by the flare of resentment, almost fury, that I felt. I was aggravated that I didn't know what you were thinking, why you refused him. I knew I had no right to care; I tried not to care. Then the others started asking, and I couldn't deny the relief I felt when you refused them all. But I still wasn't sure."

I continued, weaving a lie through the truth as skillfully as I could. "That was the first night I came here. I wrestled all night, watching you sleep, between what I should do…and what I wanted. I knew that if I weren't here, if I just left, you would eventually say yes to Mike or someone like him. It made me angry; I felt like I couldn't allow that."

I began whispering, hoping to build tension. "And then, as you were sleeping, you said my name. The feeling that coursed through me—well, I knew I couldn't ignore you any longer. Jealousy is so much more powerful than I thought. And irrational! I mean, just the fact that Mike even asked you…"

"That made you jealous? Really?" She seemed practically dumbfounded. "Honestly, for that to bother you, after I learn that Rosalie—incarnation of beauty, Rosalie—was meant for you."

"There's no competition." I took her hands and wound them around my back, drawing her even closer to me.

"I know there's no competition. That's the problem," she mumbled.

"Of course Rosalie is _physically_ beautiful, but she could never hold one hundredth of the attraction you hold for me. Ninety years I've walked the earth, all the time thinking I was complete, not realizing what I was seeking. I didn't find it, because you weren't alive yet."

She didn't move, looking pensive. "It hardly seems fair. I haven't had to wait at all. Why should I get off so easily?"

I stroked her hair slowly, from roots to tips. "You're right, I should make this harder for you, definitely." _Oh, Bella, you have no idea what I have in store for you…You won't get off easy at all. _Suddenly I heard Charlie's footsteps coming down the hall. My body tensed.

"What—"

"Lie down!" I hissed at her. There were only a few seconds with which to make everything look normal. I swiftly hid in the closet while she dove under the quilt to make like she was sleeping.

He cracked the door open, peeking in to make sure his daughter was asleep as she was supposed to be. When he had closed the door and moved away down the hall, I slid out from my hiding place and curled my arm around her shoulders, putting my mouth close to her ear.

"You are a terrible actress. I'd say that career path is out for you."

"Darn it," she said sardonically.

I softly sang a German tune, playfully teasing her.

"What are you doing?"

"Singing you to sleep, of course."

"Right! Like I could sleep with you here!"

"You do it all the time."

"But I didn't _know_ you were here!"

"Well, if you don't think you can sleep, then what do you want to do?" I said, as suggestively as I could.

Her teenage hormones offered a suggestion similar to "Jump his undead bones!" but she was still innocent enough to not suggest that this early on. She swallowed. "I'm not sure."

"Tell me when you decide." I began moving my mouth along her jaw again, almost—but not quite—kissing my way along.

"I've decided what I want to do," she said abruptly, and I knew my ministrations were driving her crazy again. "I want to hear more about you."

"Ask me anything."

"Why can you read minds? I mean, why only you? And Alice can see the future…how does that happen?"

"We don't really know. Carlisle believes that we all bring something of our strongest human traits with us into the next life, where they are intensified. He thinks that I must have already been very sensitive to the thoughts of those around me. Alice must have had some precognition to begin with, as well."

"Then what kinds of abilities did the others bring?"

"Carlisle brought his…compassion." I almost choked out the word. "Carlisle" and "compassion" do not belong in the same sentence unless there's a negative as well. "Esme brought her ability to love passionately. Emmett brought his strength, Rosalie, her tenacity…or stubbornness, if you prefer.

"Jasper is interesting. He has very strong empathy, to the point that he can affect the emotions of the people around him, like calming a room of angry people, or start a mob from apathetic groups of people. It's a pretty subtle gift.

"Are you ready to sleep now? Or do you have more questions?"

"Only about a million or two."

"We have tomorrow, and the next day, and the next…" _And every one of those days I will be drawing you closer to me, so you need me, until you can't live without me. _

"Are you sure you won't vanish in the morning? You are mythical, after all."

"I won't leave you." _Even if you ever want me to. _

"One more then, tonight…" She blushed; I could feel it. I could also see why, and the reason begged for teasing.

"What is it?"

"No, forget it. I changed my mind."

"Please?" I put on my best puppy dog face.

"Well, you said that Rosalie and Emmett are 'together'…is that…the same as it is for humans?"

I laughed. Oh, it was so cute to see her so fluttered and embarrassed. Made my night. "Is that what you're getting at? I suppose it's similar. Most human desires are there, just hidden behind more powerful desires."

"Oh."

I looked sidelong at her, smiling. "Was there a purpose behind your curiosity?"

"Well, I did wonder, about you and me…someday…"

"That…would probably not be possible for us." _Not until I turned you, anyway._ "You are so soft, so fragile. I have to watch myself every moment so I don't hurt you. I could kill you easily, just by accident, Bella. I could reach out, intending to touch your face, and crush your skull. You don't realize how…breakable you are. I can never afford to lose any kind of control when I'm with you." I waited a moment for the full effect to hit her. "Are you scared?"

She considered for a moment. "No. I'm fine." _You liar._

"I'm curious now. Have _you_ ever…?"

She immediately blushed. "No! I've never felt like this about anyone before, not even close!"

"I know that. But I also know love and lust don't always keep the same company." _Boy, do I know that! _

"They do for me. Now that they exist for me, that is."

"That's good. We have that one thing in common, at least." I almost choked on that one, too. I wished someone would gag me.

"So, do you find me attractive, in _that_ way, at all?"

"I may no longer be human, but in that way I am still a man." _In other words, given sufficient opportunity, I would bang your brains out, honey._

She yawned.

"I've answered your questions, now you should sleep." I was itching to get away, anyway.

"I'm not sure if I can sleep."

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No!" _That's what I like to hear._ I began singing the German tune again, crooning as if it were a lullaby. She drifted off to sleep, feeling safe all cradled in my arms. If only she knew the song I was singing. I saw an English adaptation once. Their translated version went like this:

_Ruuun and catch_

_Ruuun and catch_

_The lamb is caught in the blackberry patch_

_Search and find_

_Search and find_

_The wolves will get what is left behind_

If only I'd known how appropriate that song would be…

When I was sure she was deeply asleep, I went up to the roof to meet Alice. She had been feeding me those cheesy romantic lines pretty much since Bella walked into the room. There's no way I could have come up with that drivel on my own.

"I want to play now, Edward. You promised we could if I helped you out here."

"I only said we could if you promised that we would _both_ have fun this time—not like when you and Rosalie bound me to the table."

"That was fun! Fine, but can I still use manacles and chains?" Her eyes were bright, eager.

"Only on the wrists this time."

"Fabulous." She smiled, displaying her now-pointy teeth. On anyone else they would probably be chompers, but on Alice they could only be teeth. I smiled back, and we ran off into the night together, making our way toward the "rumpus room."

**No, I do NOT have a bondage fetish. I do have a slight chain fetish, though.**

**Gah! This was insanely long! So much flowery speech and fluff to sift through! **

**How did you like my "rumpus room" scene? All my regular reviewers seem to like my truly original stuff, so I think I might put it in as much as I can. It's more interesting than anything in Twilight, anyway. **

**Edward isn't really as much of a bully target as he appears, they all get it every once in a while. It's just that this is focusing on Edward and everything connected to his acquisition of Bella, so it looks like he gets the short end a lot. I promise it's not true, though.**

**Sorry, fans, but student teaching is really getting into gear now, so updates will be farther between. Maybe a week for shorter intervals.  
**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

I walked into the sitting room where everyone was gathered. Figures I'd be late; I'm the one who called this family meeting.

"I need your guys' help today. I'm planning to bring Bella here to officially meet you."

"Ok, so what's with the meeting, then?" Rosalie asked. "We just need to act all normal and nice, right?"

"Actually, Edward was thinking something a little more elaborate than that," Carlisle said from across the room. He was standing, leaning against the bookcase. "He wants us to seem 'all-American' or something like that; sociable and fun with each other, even if we don't hang out with humans."

"Yeah. And to enhance our 'good vampire' image, we need convincing back stories."

"You don't think our current histories will endear us to her?"

I looked at him incredulously. "Carlisle, you tied your father up to the cross hanging in his vicarage! Then you sliced open his torso and showed him his own organs one by one before finally breaking his neck!" By the time I finished, Carlisle was in stitches from trying to hold back laughter. Oh, he was just baiting me. Bastard.

Emmett was laughing hysterically. "I wonder what she would think after we told her that story! So much for us being 'good vampires.' Ha ha!"

"ANYWAY, we need to think of some good stories I can tell her, a sort of 'family history.' Help me out here, guys."

"Ugh, this seems like a lot of work." That came from Emmett.

"For an intellectual dynamo like you, I'm sure it does," I replied sarcastically.

He sneered at me from the couch where he was seated. "You wanna say that again?"

"Gentlemen, let's all settle down." Carlisle went to stand between us. "This is Edward's first acquisition attempt, and even though it's a little out of the ordinary, we're going to help him."

"Why do we have to help this pansy boy 'woo' his girl, Carlisle?" Emmett again.

Carlisle's eyes flashed. He stepped forward so that he was leaning over Emmett's seated frame. "Because I'm the head of this family and I say we will. Do you understand me?"

Emmett gulped and nodded. "Yes, sir." Nobody openly defied Carlisle around here if they could help it.

"So, we all need stories to make us seem more like sympathy characters, right? 'Victims of circumstance' and all that?" Carlisle had his chin tucked in his hand now.

"That's about right, yeah."

He stared at the floor, concentrating. "My story should be pretty easy; it's just a matter of omitting certain parts, but keeping the main facts in place, up until my turning. All right, here's what you tell her…"

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was in her room, sitting in the rocking chair, when she awoke that morning. She suddenly sat up with a small cry.

"Your hair looks like a haystack," I said, teasing her.

"Edward! You stayed!" she nearly squealed, then ran across the room and jumped into my lap. That was certainly an exuberant reaction. Hasn't anyone ever kept a promise to this girl? Would she even notice if they did?

She leaned her head against my shoulder. Nothing like a taste of lust first thing in the morning. "I was sure it was all a dream," she murmured.

"Aw, you're not that creative." _Oops, was that too insulting?_

She suddenly jumped up and hurried to the door. "Charlie!" Of course. She was worried about him finding me here. Nice distraction from my teasing, too.

"He left an hour ago—after reattaching your battery cables. Is that really all it would take to stop you, if you were determined to leave?" I held out my arms, inviting her to partake in some more Edward lovin,' but now she was thinking about how she looked and smelled. Aw, how cute, she was worried about morning breath!

"Um, I need to, uh, freshen up, again."

"Go ahead, I'll wait."

She was gone and back in a few minutes.

"Welcome back," I said, taking her into my arms. After a couple minutes more she noticed something. She touched my shirt.

"You left!" _Ooh, forgot about that! My clothes got shredded "playing" with __Alice__, so I had to change. Think fast, Edward._

"I couldn't leave in the clothes I came in—what would the neighbors think?"

She still pouted. Petulant girl.

"You were very deeply asleep. I didn't miss anything. The talking came earlier." I spoke softly now. "You said you loved me." I was making all this up, but she couldn't know that.

"You knew that already."

"It was nice to hear, just the same."

"I love you," she said. _Yes! That's what I was waiting for._

"You are my life now." Which is not the same as "I love you too." It _really_ isn't. I held her for a while as the sun rose higher. It was pretty boring. Finally I had had enough of that. "Breakfast time," I said, and quickly hefted her over my shoulder.

She shrieked a bit in protest. "Put me down!"

"I don't think so."

"This is not dignified! Let me go!" she yelled as I carried her down the stairs.

"If I did that, you would probably hurt yourself going down the stairs. Besides, I like having you up like this." I thought about spanking her once to emphasize my point, but quickly decided that kind of action would be counter-productive. Maybe Rosalie would be interested later. I set her down again in the kitchen.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Bella asked later, while eating the bowl of cereal she'd scrounged.

"Hmmm…What would you say to meeting my family?"

She gulped her mouthful down, nearly choking on it.

"Are you afraid now?"

"Yes." Good. She wasn't a complete dunce.

"Don't worry." I gave her a dazzling smile. "I'll protect you."

"I'm not afraid of them. I'm afraid they won't…like me. Won't they be surprised that you would bring someone…human…home to meet them? Do they know I know about them?"

"Oh, they already know everything. In fact, they took bets yesterday on whether I'd bring you back, though I can't imagine why anyone would bet against Alice." _And I have a feeling you don't want to know how the losers had to pay. I found it amusing, but to each their own, especially in the vampire world._

"So Alice saw me coming?"

"Something like that." I didn't really want to talk about what Alice could see. "Is that any good?" I asked, gesturing toward her cereal and deliberately changing the subject at the same time. "It doesn't look very appetizing."

"Well, it's no deer in the woods…"

I frowned, not amused by her morbid humor. She saw my look and went back to her cereal.

I needed to distract her thoughts again, and suddenly I had it! "You should introduce me to your father, I think."

She stilled. "He already knows you."

"As your boyfriend, I mean."

"Why?"

"Isn't it customary?" I asked again, needling her.

She considered for quite some time, looking anywhere but at me. She so did not want to tell her father, for whatever reason. _Hey, Bella, if your father's a decent man and you're really worried about introducing your boyfriend to him, that should be a warning bell. But oh, I forgot, you don't like doing smart things. My bad._

"Are you going to tell Charlie I'm your boyfriend or not?" _Give me an excuse to stalk you, damn it! _

"Are you? My boyfriend, I mean?"

"Well, he will need some explanation for why I'm around here so much. I don't want Chief Swan getting a restraining order put on me." _Waaay too much attention, that._

She had finished her cereal. "Are you finished?"

She jumped from her chair. "Yes."

"Get dressed—I'll wait here."

She rummaged around for a good twenty minutes or so, trying to find the "right" thing to wear. Like there was a wrong thing? You still look pretty much the same to all of us—eatable.

She finally found something she deemed acceptable and flounced down the stairs. "Okay, I'm decent."

I pulled her against me. "Wrong again. You are utterly indecent; no one should look so tempting, it's not fair." Her breath came quicker, and a flush lit her cheeks. Excellent. I went on, softly. "Shall I explain how you are tempting me?" Instead of telling, I showed her. I ran my fingers up and down her spine, causing gooseflesh to form down her arms—and possible elsewhere. I slowly tilted my head and leaned down to kiss her again. My lips touched hers lightly—and she fainted. Again. Seriously, is this girl anemic? I checked for—yep, still breathing, at least.

"You know what? I'll do the driving," I said when she had revived—again.

As we drove up to the Cullen house, I freely observed her thoughts. She was so absorbed in admiring the house and surrounding area that there was no way she would have noticed. In her defense, though, it is quite a lovely place. The house was maybe a hundred years old, three stories, painted white. The windows and doors were a combination of original and restored. The river flowed nearby; even she could hear the sound of its passing.

Eventually she was able to voice her thoughts. "Wow."

"You like it."

"It has a certain charm."

"Ready to go in?"

"Not even a little—let's go." At least she wasn't a coward.

I opened the door for her, and we went inside. Carlisle and Esme, my "adopted parents," were standing near our grand piano waiting to begin introductions.

"Carlisle, Esme, this is Bella."

"Welcome, Bella," Carlisle said as he offered his hand to her.

"It's nice to see you again, Dr. Cullen."

"Please, call me Carlisle."

"Carlisle, then."

Esme stepped forward then, also reaching out to shake hands. "It's very nice to know you."

"Thank you. I'm glad to meet you, too." Meeting Esme put Bella completely at ease, but then, Esme had that effect on everyone. Simply put, if Alice seemed simple, Esme really _was_ simple. We all put on a show of being nice every now and again, but her performance never drops. It's as if she really doesn't have a mean bone in her body, which is really strange considering her current state of being. I guess it takes all sorts of vampires, too.

"Where are Alice and Jasper?" I had thought everyone would be meeting us. Then I sensed them at the top of the stairs.

"Hey, Edward!" Alice called enthusiastically. She ran down the stairs and came to a stop in front of us. "Hi, Bella!" She leaned forward and kissed Bella on the cheek. "You do smell nice, I never noticed before."

I gave her a look that said something like "back off, she's mine." Alice didn't pay it much mind.

"Hello, Bella," said Jasper. He deliberately stayed some distance away, still enticed by the scent of a human in close quarters.

"Hello, Jasper," Bella said shyly. Then to everyone there, "It's nice to meet you all—you have a very beautiful home."

"Thank you," Esme replied. "We're so glad that you came." She meant every word.

**_Edward. _**Carlisle thought to me. I looked over at him. **_Have you told her yet?_**

**_ Not yet._**

**_ Sometime today, then. _**

I nodded once. **_Yes. Today. _**Bella caught me looking at Carlisle, but decided to pry yet. Emphasis on _yet_. It seemed she could never stand to have people keep secrets from her, while at the same time she felt justified in keeping them from pretty much everyone else.

While trying to keep her eyes off me for a while, they fell on the grand piano behind Carlisle and Esme. Flashes of memory went through her mind, and I could see her mother sitting at a piano, playing at roughly an intermediate level.

Esme noticed, too. "Do you play?" she asked, nodding in that direction.

"No, but it's beautiful. Is it yours?"

"No. Didn't Edward tell you he was musical?"

"No. I guess he's been too modest."

"Why don't you play for her, Edward?" I glanced at Bella.

"I'd like to hear you play."

I walked over and sat down on the bench. I started in on a long complicated composition piece. I admitted to myself that I was showing off. Ninety-some years of practice had better pay off, after all. I turned my gaze to Bella and winked. "Do you like it? It's Esme's favorite."

She nodded, clearly eager to hear more.

I slowed the tempo, then transitioned into playing the piece that contained the "lullaby" I sang to her the night before. "You inspired this one," I told her, though in fact I had nothing to do with its composition. It made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, though, which was what I wanted. My "family" quietly exited to give us some alone time.

"They like you, you know," I began, trying to get her to focus on casual conversation. "Esme especially." Her intense perusal of me playing was a bit unnerving.

She looked around. "Where did they go?" She had just noticed that they were gone.

"Giving us some privacy, I suppose."

"So they like me, but Emmett and Rosalie?"

"Eh, don't worry about Rosalie. She'll come around."

"And Emmett?"

"He has no problem with you, but he thinks I'm loony."

"Hm…Esme and Carlisle?"

"Happy to see me happy." Actually, Carlisle found the whole thing ecstatically amusing. Esme was genuinely happy for me. "Esme is glad that I seem to have found someone, like they all have someone." _In a manner of speaking. _

"Alice seems very…enthusiastic."

"Alice has a unique way of looking at things." I could tell she was getting at something.

She stared at me until I met her eyes, then asked, "So what was Carlisle telling you before?"

"He wanted to tell me some news. He didn't know if it was something I would share with you."

"Will you?"

"I kind of have to, because I'll kind of need to kick my protection of you into high gear, and I don't want you to think I'm a tyrant all the time." _Just a majority of the time, dear. _

"What's going on?"

"Alice sees some visitors coming soon. They know we're here, and they're curious."

"Visitors?" She was obviously skeptical.

"Vampires, but not like our family here. They probably won't even come into town, but I want to keep an eye you 'til they're gone anyway."

She nodded at that, still not convinced, but willing to take my word for now. She began looking around the house again, turning her head as far as she could in either direction.

"Not quite what you expected, is it?" I asked. "No coffins, no piled skulls in the corners; I don't even think we have cobwebs." Not after all the cleaning we did, anyway. "What a disappointment this must be for you."

"It's so light, so open."

"Well, it's the place we never have to hide." I slowed my playing as I reached the end of the song. The final noted drifted quietly off.

"Thank you," she murmured.

I smiled. "Do you want to see the rest of the house?"

She nodded. I led her up the staircase. "Rosalie and Emmett's room…Carlisle's office…Alice's room…" I gestured to each of the rooms as we walked past. Bella suddenly stopped when she spotted the wooden cross hanging at the end of the hall. The same one Carlisle tied his father to, actually. But Bella didn't know that, and wouldn't any time soon.

I chuckled. "You can laugh," I offered. "It _is_ sort of meant to be ironic."

"It must be very old." She was still in awe.

"Early sixteen-thirties, give or take."

"Why do you keep this here?"

"Nostalgia, of a sort. It belonged to Carlisle's father."

"He…collected antiques?" she asked doubtfully.

I had to smile at that. "Nope. Carved this himself. It hung on the wall above the pulpit in the vicarage where he preached."

"How old is Carlisle?" she asked. I could tell that the reality of "vampire" was beginning to dawn on her.

"He just celebrated his three hundred sixty-second birthday."

She looked at me, eyes wide. "Wow."

"He was born in London, roughly the sixteen-forties, the only son of an Anglican pastor. His mother died giving birth to him. His father was an intolerant man. As the Protestants came to power, he was enthusiastic in his persecution of Roman Catholics and other religions and sects. He also believed very strongly in the reality of tangible evil. He led hunts for witches, werewolves, and vampires." All of that was completely true, from Carlisle's account.

"They burned a lot innocent people—of course the real creatures that he sought were not so easy to catch. When the pastor grew old he placed his obedient son in charge of the raids. At first Carlisle was a disappointment; he was not quick to accuse, to see demons where they did not exist. He was persistent, though, and more clever than his father. He actually discovered a group of true vampires living hidden in the sewers, only coming out to hunt at night. That was how they tended to live in those days, before monsters became the stuff of myths and legends.

"The people grabbed their torches and pitchforks, of course, and waited where Carlisle had seen the monsters exit into the street. Eventually one emerged. He must have been ancient, and weak with hunger. Carlisle heard him call out in Latin to his comrades, warning them of the mob. It turned and ran through the streets. Carlisle was the fastest and was soon far ahead of the others. Then the creature attacked him. The others in the mob soon caught up, and the vampire took off again, leaving Carlisle in the street."

I paused, trying to remember exactly how this next part should go. "Carlisle knew what his father would do. The bodies would be burned—anything infected by the monster must be destroyed. Carlisle acted instinctively to save his own life. He crawled away from the alley while the mob followed the vampire. He hid in a cellar, burying himself in rotting potatoes for three days. It's a miracle he was able to keep silent, to stay undiscovered.

"Then it was over, and he realized what he'd become." _And then he realized what kind of power he had, and he went back to his father to teach that selfish, abusive, overbearing child-grooming bastard a final lesson before killing him._ So I guess Carlisle _did_ learn it from someone. Carlisle's abridged version was really more a matter of omission than outright lying. Either way, Bella wouldn't get the whole thing any time soon.

Her face had a stunned expression, her mouth hanging slightly open.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

That snapped her out of it. "I'm fine," she said, a little too quickly to be convincing. I could tell she was still curious, though.

"You have more questions, don't you?"

"A few," she admitted.

I smiled and began pulling her along by the hand toward Carlisle's study. "Come on, then. I'll show you."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

**Yes, as one of my regular reviewers observed last chapter, ****Carlisle**** is an ass. I hope by this point that you didn't need me to actually tell you that, though.**

**Sorry, this chapter didn't lend itself to much originality. And that's a shame, because the fun stuff lies where Bella doesn't see! Oh, well...**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"I think we need some fun recreation gimmick to cement the 'wholesome American family' image. What do you think, Edward?" Carlisle continued.

"Yeah. I was thinking some team sport, maybe."

"I don't think she'd be into our kind of 'sport', Edward," said Rosalie with a smirk.

"What about baseball?" Alice chimed in. "I've always wanted to try baseball."

"And it's the all-American game," Carlisle chimed in.

"Oh, I think it's so nice that you're all getting together to play a nice game of baseball." That would be Esme, being all adorable and generally clueless again.

"Baseball. I like the sound of that," said Emmett.

"All right. Emmett, you go out with Rosalie and get the equipment. You—" now he looked directly at me, "—need to come up with your own modified self-story; something to make Bella feel sympathetic toward the poor, tortured vampire. Come along." He started walking toward his office. Great. Another session with Carlisle…*

We stopped just outside the door.

"Come in," Carlisle said from inside.

I opened the door to his study. It was a very nice room, with high ceiling, tall windows, and dark-paneled wooden walls. You had to search for the walls though, because most of them were covered up by bookshelves. Carlisle had done a lot of research in his time, about various subjects, and I don't think he ever threw a book away—except for this god-awful "vampire romance" one he read awhile back—so he had enough to start his own library, if he wanted.

Carlisle had been reading when we arrived, and he was just placing a bookmark between the pages when we walked in. "What can I do for you?" he asked, rising from his chair.

"I wanted to show Bella some of our—well, your—history."

"Excellent. Where did you want to start?" **_Start with the Waggoner, I think. _**

"The Waggoner," I obediently repeated.

I pulled Bella down the line of bookshelves and stood her in front of an oil painting. Done in various shades of sepia, it depicted an old picture of seventeenth century London.

"London in the sixteen-fifties," I explained.

"The London of my youth," Carlisle chimed in.

"Will you tell the story?" I asked him.

"I would, but I'm actually running a bit late. The hospital called—they're short one doctor since one called in sick. Besides, you know the stories as well as I do." **_The modified ones, too._**

Carlisle left the room, and Bella stood there for long time, studying the painting. "What happened then?" she finally asked. "When he realized what had happened to him?"

"He rebelled against it. He tried to destroy himself. But that's nearly impossible for vampires to do to themselves."

"What did he try?"

"He jumped from great heights…He tried to drown himself in the ocean…but he was young to his new life, and very strong. Still, he was so repelled by himself that he tried to kill himself with starvation."

"Is that possible?" she asked in a faint voice.

"No; there are very few ways we can be killed.

"So he grew very hungry, and eventually weak. He strayed as far as he could from human settlements to avoid feeding on them. For months he wandered by night, seeking the loneliest places to live.

"One night, a herd of deer passed his hiding place. He was so wild with thirst that he attacked without a thought. His strength returned and he realized there was an alternative to being the vile monster he feared. He had eaten venison in his former life, after all. With that, his new philosophy was born.

"He began to make better use of his time. He'd always been intelligent and eager to learn. Now he had unlimited time. He studied by night, planned by day, swam to France and—"

"He _swam_ to France?"

I looked down at her. "People swim the Channel all the time, Bella," I said. It made her feel stupid. I didn't care.

"That's true, I guess. It just sounded kind of funny, I mean, it's not like everyone does it."

"Swimming is easy for us because, technically, we don't need to breathe."

She started. "You don't—"

"Hey! Do you want to hear the story or not?"

She breathed an explosive teenage girl sigh. "Ugh! You can't spring something like that on me, and then expect me not to say anything." She glared at me a second. "You don't have to _breathe_?" she said again.

"Nope. We just do it to speak, and to form expression, like sighing or laughing."

"How long can you go without breathing?"

"I guess indefinitely; I don't know, I've never had the motivation to find out. It gets a bit uncomfortable after awhile, being without a sense of smell."

"A bit uncomfortable," she repeated. _She looks way too comfortable with all this. Seriously, she needs a wake-up call. _I stared at her until she grew uncomfortable. "What is it?"

"I keep waiting for it to happen."

"What?"

"That at some point, something I say or do, or something you see or encounter will be too much. Then you'll run away from me, screaming as you go. I won't stop you when you do, either, because I want you to be safe. Yet, I also want to be with you. How can I reconcile those two desires…"

"I'm not running anywhere," she promised me, trying to be reassuring, I think.

"We'll see," I said, while thinking, _Damn right you're not. I would come after you, and give you another reason to scream altogether. _I was pleased with her response, though. Se was reiterating her "choice," so in the end it would be her fault—or so I would work to convince her.

Her curiosity got the better of her again. "So, go on—you said Carlisle swam to France."

"And he continued on through Europe, to the universities there. By night he studied music, science, medicine, and found his calling, his penance, in that, in saving human lives. I can't adequately describe it; it took Carlisle two centuries of torturous effort to perfect his self-control. Now he is all but immune to the scent of blood, and able to do the work he loves without worrying about uncontrollable urges."

It _did_ take him that long to learn to co-exist with humans, but only for the sake of convenience. Besides, practicing medicine as a vampire is like working at a buffet all the time: after a while, all the dishes lose their attractiveness. There's only so much delicious apple crisp (or your favorite dessert) one can eat, after all, before it becomes just another food item.

"He was studying in Italy when he discovered the others there. They were much more civilized and educated than the phantoms of the London sewers." I pointed to a painting of four men standing on a balcony. After a moment Bella laughed, surprised when she recognized Carlisle among them.

"Solimena was greatly inspired by Carlisle's friends. He often painted them as gods. Aro, Marcus, Caius," I named off the other three pictured. "Nighttime patrons of the arts."

"What happened to them?"

I shrugged. Like we care what happens to others. "They're still there. As they have been for who knows how long. Carlisle stayed with them for only a few decades. He greatly admired many of their characteristics, but they disagreed on some key points. Eventually they agreed to disagree, and Carlisle set off for the New World, dreaming of finding others like himself." _Making some, more like. _

"He could never foster any companionship, because people would always get suspicious after a while, what with the 'never aging' thing and all, even while he could live among humans as one of them—after people eventually stopped believing in creatures such as us.

"When the influenza epidemic hit, he was working nights at a hospital in Chicago. By then he had decided to create a companion like him, having lost hope of finding one. He was a little leery about doing it, because he didn't really know how he himself had been turned. When he had finally steeled his resolve, he found me. I was in a ward for the dying, and he had cared for my parents before they died, so he knew I was an orphan. So, he decided to try…"

Actually, the epidemic drew Carlisle like a moth to a flame. He knew he could find many potential victims, those who had lost everything and lay dying. I stared out the window, racking my brains. I thought there was more to the story, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. With a start, I realized Bella was gazing at me with a compassionate expression. I guess she mistook my musing for…well, something else. If that made her feel more sympathetic toward me, well and good.

If there was more to our "story" that would just have to remain unsaid. "And so we've come full circle," I said, looking down at Bella.

"Have you always stayed with Carlisle, then?" she asked.

I put my arm around her shoulder and started leading her out of the room. "Well, almost. I had a typical bout of rebellion about ten years after I was turned. I wasn't sold on Carlisle's life of 'abstinence,' and I resented him for keeping me away from my 'natural prey.' So I went off on my own for a while."

"Really?" She seemed intrigued.

As we were going up another flight of stairs, I looked over at her. "That doesn't repulse you?"

"No. Should it?"

"Why not?"

"I guess it just sounds reasonable." Her calm answer sent a frisson of alarm up my spine. I tried to cover it with a sharp laugh. Once again, she was taking it too well and being too accepting to be a normal human.

I wove a tale around her about how I went off on my own, fed on the dregs of society, got fed up because of the conscience Carlisle had instilled in me, and finally returned to be accepted with open arms by Carlisle and Esme. Esme welcomed me back, that was true. Carlisle was just incredibly smug about it.

When one vampire "binds" a newly-turned vampire to itself, the bound vampire is under their control on a deep and primal level. Carlisle kept me very close to him for about ten years after I turned, and I chafed at such captivity.

He did give me a chance to leave him. He let me loose, and told me that if I could evade him for a year, while he hunted me, he would set me free. I got a month's head start, and let me tell you I made some serious tracks in that month. I suspect he didn't actually give me a month; he just kept out of sight and his thoughts quiet during that time. He was good at that, unfortunately.

Even now I suspect I never had a chance. There were many close calls and chance almost-meetings during that hunt. Once, our stagecoaches passed each other on the road in an Old West mining town (back before it was the "Old" West). I didn't think he saw me, but I wouldn't put it past him to pretend ignorance. Another time, I was clinging to the bottom of a steam engine train (yes, right between the train and the tracks) and he suddenly opened a window of the car I was clinging to and looked around, as if looking for something. To this day, I don't know if I really was avoiding detection by the skin my teeth, or if Carlisle was toying with me. I suppose it doesn't really matter, because he caught me in the end.

Carlisle described to me once what it is like to have someone "bound" to you. He said it was as if there was an invisible tether connecting the "binder" and the "bound" at all times, so he always knew where I was. I know also that, several times during our chase, I felt that I wanted to go back to Carlisle, even though I couldn't think of a single reason why I should. I wonder sometimes if that was evidence of the tether he talked about. I still think he just cheated, though.

Now Bella and I had arrived at my room, and I showed her in. The back wall was just a sheet of glass, one huge window. To the right was my sound system and music collection all along the wall, and I can say without a bit of exaggeration that it was one of the most extensive and varied that I had ever seen. Or heard of.

While she was ooh-ing and aah-ing over my collection, I found myself staring at her, trying to figure out this enigma of a person who took it totally in stride that I killed people, even if it was in the past (as far as she knew).

She looked over at me. "You're still waiting for the running and the screaming, aren't you?" she asked.

_Sure, why not? _I nodded.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but you're really not as scary as you think you are. I don't find you scary at all, actually."

Cocky bitch. She was outright lying. I could not, of course, let her get away with saying something like that. I gave her a wicked, wide smile. "You _really_ shouldn't have said that." I backed away from her a bit and crouched, growling.

"Y-you wouldn't dare!" Her hands came up, to ward me off, I suspect. Like that would do any good. She _was_ scared now.

I pounced, leaping through the air and carrying her with me across the room, landing on the couch against the wall. I curled my body around hers, enclosing it like a cage and preventing her from being hurt by my demonstration. She gasped and struggled to get away after we landed, but I only held her more securely. _You cannot escape me, remember? _She began struggling harder, and looked up at me with fear in her eyes.

I had to soften my expression, then I smiled down at her teasingly. "You were saying?"

"That you are a very, very terrifying monster," she offered placatingly. _And don't you forget it. _

"Much better," I said.

"Uh, can I get up now?" she asked.

"Can we come in?" a voice asked from the hallway. It was Alice and Jasper at the door.

Bella tried to get off me, but I made sure she was only readjusted and sitting on my lap. I hoped my unspoken message was clear enough: I was in control.

Alice came in and sat on the floor. "It sounded like you were having Bella for lunch, and we came to see if you would share." Her statement shocked me, because she let me know exactly what she was thinking: She really did want to share Bella, but not as a meal! I hadn't expected this little twist, but who knew? It might be fun. Later on.

I smiled when Bella stiffened, and said for the benefit of both of the girls, "Sorry, I don't believe I have enough to spare." My message to Alice was, **_Back off bitch, she's mine! _**Bella relaxed again when I pulled her closer to me.

"Actually," Jasper said, walking into the room, "Alice says there's going to be a real storm tonight, and Emmett wants to play ball. Are you game?"

His words obviously confused Bella, given the context in which they were delivered.

"Of course you should bring Bella along," said Alice, "if she wants to come."

"Do you want to go?" I asked her. **_Say yes._**

"Sure. Where are we going, again?"

"To play ball. We have to wait for thunder to do it—you'll see why."

"Great! Let's go see if Carlisle will come!" Alice said, hopping up and leaving the room.

"As if you don't already know," Jasper said, following behind her.

"What will we be playing?" Bella asked.

"_You_ will be watching. _We_ will be playing baseball."

"Vampires like baseball?"

_For the purpose of deceiving you, yes. _"It's the American pastime."

**The only way Esme could remain a vampire in this universe is if she were simple-minded, so sorry if you don't like her that way. She will probably remain so, however.**

*** Sorry if that time-switch was confusing, it was a continuation of their "family meeting" relevant to this chapter, whereas the part in chapter 15 was relevant to that one. I would like to know if that was _too_ confusing, so if it was, review and tell me about it. Heck, you can just review to give me a confidence boost or something. Just tell me you read my story!**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I drove Bella home through a light drizzle so she could change before we joined the others at the field. And swore under my breath upon seeing a familiar vehicle in the driveway. The wolf couple was back. Jacob the puppy and the old man. _This is crossing the line._

"He came to warn Charlie?" Bella asked, apparently based on what I had just thought. I guess I had spoken out loud, as well. "Let me deal with this," she offered.

"Yeah, that's probably best. Be careful, though. The child has no idea." _Yet. He will, though. More than an idea, even. _It was best that I make myself scarce in this situation, anyway. The less the wolves know about this, the better.

She looked at me quizzically. "Jacob is not that much younger than I am."

"Oh, I know." He was _just_ young enough to be childishly indignant about us.

"Bring them inside so I can leave," I instructed her.* "I'll be back around dusk."

"You don't have to leave," she said, almost pleadingly. She didn't want to deal with them all by herself; she wanted me close by.

_Sorry, Bella, I really do have to leave, but your dependency is reassuring._ "Actually, I do. After they're gone, you still have to prepare Charlie to meet your new boyfriend." I grinned widely.

She groaned. "Thanks a lot."

I leaned down to kiss her briefly, then let her loose to greet the two Quileutes. I kept a steady watch as she exchanged pleasantries while leading them up to and inside the house.

As soon as they were all inside, I took off running. I had to run back to the house (which wouldn't take long), borrow Emmett's Jeep (which might take a little convincing), and drive it back to the Swan residence (which would take considerably longer than running) by sunset, and it was already late afternoon. That meant that I couldn't listen to the exchange between Bella and her visitors, but since she had convinced herself to be okay with my vampire-ness, I didn't think a single visit from one concerned citizen would cause any major upheavals in our relationship, no matter who (or what) that citizen happened to be.

When I got back maybe half an hour later, Chief Swan had already come home. I noted with some relief that the truck the two visitors had come in was now gone. If I listened closely, I could hear Bella and her father talking. It sounded like they had begun to talk about me.

"You're going out with Edward Cullen?" he yelled. _Great. So much for this going well._

"I thought you liked the Cullens," Bella protested.

"He's too old for you!" _Mister, you don't know the half of it. But how do you even know that much?_

"Uh, we're both juniors," she argued.

"Wait…which one is Edwin?" Edwin? You had no problem saying "Edward" a minute ago, Chief.

"_Edward_ is the youngest, the one with the reddish brown hair," Bella petulantly offered.

"Oh, well, that's better I guess. I don't like the look of that big one. I'm sure he's a nice boy and all, but he looks too…mature for you. Is Edwin your boyfriend?"

I missed their conversation for the next couple of minutes, because I was up on the roof doing my very best not to betray my presence with an unsightly and undoubtedly rude burst of laughter. Chief Swan thought she wanted to date Emmett! Oh, I was in stitches for the next few minutes. I probably looked like I was having a seizure or something up there on the roof. The thought of Emmett and Bella…he would crush her to death within a week. Literally. Because she was that annoying. I convulsed into giggles again, and really couldn't stop until I heard something that pricked my ears.

"When is he coming over?" he asked Bella.

"He'll be here in a few minutes."

"Where is he taking you?"

I heard her groan quite clearly from outside. Obviously the question annoyed her, and I heartily concurred. How dare her police chief father keep tabs on her whereabouts? Didn't he care at all? "Will you stop with the twenty questions? We're going to play baseball with his family."

"_You're_ playing baseball." He seemed skeptical. It sounded like Chief Swan was aware of his daughter's agility and overall gracefulness. Or lack thereof.

"I'm really going to be watching most of the time."

"You must really like this guy," he said. _There_ he was. There was the protective father I was anticipating contending with.

I quickly climbed off the roof after deciding that this was a good place to interrupt. I rang the doorbell.

Chief Swan answered the door. "Come on in, Edward."

"Thanks, Chief Swan," I said. We stood in the entryway, since we all knew Bella and I would be leaving in a couple minutes anyway.

"Go ahead and call me Charlie. So, I hear you're getting my girl to watch baseball."

"Yes, sir, that's the plan.

"Well, more power to you, I guess." We traded an understanding look, and chuckled. I almost felt bad for the guy. He seemed really nice, and I could see that he was intelligent, and here I was planning to corrupt, and almost kill, and turn his only daughter. Well, _c'est la vie_. He would survive. Most people do.

"Ok." Bella shoved past us to stand by the door. "Enough humor at my expense. Let's go."

"Not too late, Bell."

"Don't worry, Charlie, I'll have her home early," I told him.

"You take care of my girl, all right?"

"She'll be safe with me, I promise, sir."

Bella walked stiffly out. All this concern for her welfare was bugging her, I guess. Don't you just hate it when people care about you?

She froze when she saw the Jeep. Not surprising, I guess. It was made for serious off-roading. The tires alone were higher than her waist, and neither of us was sure that she could get into it by herself. Metal guards protected the headlights and taillights, and four large spotlights were attached to the crash bar.

Chief Swan let out an appreciative whistle. Such a shame. I could actually get to like that guy. Couldn't be helped, though.

Bella opened the passenger door and gauged the distance to the cab. She stepped back a few steps, preparing to run and jump for it. I sighed and helped her up when she reached her jump point, trying to make it look normal and natural for the chief's benefit.

When I climbed in, Bella was looking rather helplessly at all the buckles located in just one seat. "What's all this?"

"It's a five-point harness, for serious off-roading."

"Uh-oh." I had to hold back a chuckle at that. Then I just couldn't resist a bit of unnecessary caressing as I helped her with the harness, tracing her collarbone and running my fingers lightly over her neck. I heard her gasp from my "ministrations" and settled back into the driver's seat to start the engine.

Bella cleared her throat. "This is a...um…big Jeep you have." How cute, she was trying to sound normal when she was all hot and bothered. Okay, I'll play along.

"It's Emmett's. I didn't think you'd want to run the whole way."

"Where do you _keep_ thi—wait, run the _whole_ way? As in, we're still going to run part of the way?" Her voice ended at an octave comparable to a shriek, and I winced a little from the aural torture.

My answering grin was consequently a little forced. "You're not going to run."

"I'm going to be sick."

"You'll be fine."

Then we turned onto the real mountain trail, and conversation was thankfully impossible due to the constant jarring and jouncing from the frequent potholes and other obstacles. There was even a fallen tree across the path, though a small one. I hope Bella didn't notice, otherwise she might be in hysterics when we stopped.

Now we reached the end of even this path, and it was time to go cross-country, vampire-style. "Sorry, Bella, we have to go on foot from here."

"You know what? I'll just wait here." She had an expression of shock or stark terror on her face. I wasn't sure which.

"What happened to all your courage? I thought you weren't a coward," I said, deliberately pricking her pride.

"I haven't forgotten the last time yet."

"Really? You seem to have forgotten at least part of it." I smiled at her suggestively and sauntered closer until I had her trapped against the Jeep, my arms on either side of her, and our faces were mere inches from each other.

"Now, what exactly are you worrying about?"

She gulped. "Well, um, hitting a tree…and dying. And then getting sick." I dropped my head and touched my lips to hollow of her throat, kissing her and inhaling the scent of her blood at the same time. It smelled delicious, but I had recently eaten.

"Are you still worried now?"

"Yes." Her thoughts were a little jumbled now. "About hitting trees and getting sick." She wasn't worried about that. She was trying to get more lovin' from yours truly. I was happy to oblige. I moved my mouth up until it was even with her jaw, and placed another kiss there.

"And now?" I asked, knowing what the answer would be this time.

"Trees," she gasped out. "Motion sickness." I raised my head in answer, and moved to her eyelids, kissing each one.

"Bella, you don't think I would hit a tree, do you?"

"No, but I might." Now, that was just absurd. She obviously was no longer thinking coherently. Good. I kissed slowly down her cheek now, stopping just at the corner of her mouth.

"Would I let a tree hurt you?" I asked.

"No," she gasped again. Now I nearly had my lips against hers, so that they barely touched every time either one of us spoke.

"You see, there's nothing to be afraid of," I finished.

"No," she said, relaxing into me. She had performed that well, so I gave her a taste of what she wanted. I took her face in my hands and kissed her full on the mouth, moving my lips on hers. She suddenly leaned forward, molding her body to mine and opening her mouth up to mine. _Sorry love, just a taste. _I hastily broke our embrace. She involuntarily whimpered, and I inwardly rejoiced. _You are getting so desperate for me, with any luck it will only be a little more time, my pet. _"Hey, whoa, you actually want to _make_ it to the field, don't you?" I asked, teasing her again.

"I-I guess," she answered, not quite coherently. She was so much fun to toy with. _Bella, when will this get through your thick skull? You are not allowed to be the aggressor in this relationship. That just gives you too much power, and if my project is to succeed, all the power needs to be on my side. Sorry, kiddo. You want it so badly, too. What a shame. _

I waited while she climbed on me piggy-back-style again and locked her legs around my waist, grabbing my neck in a choke hold in preparation for my vampire-run. "Don't forget to close your eyes," I reminded her. She squeezed them shut and buried her face in my shoulder.

A few minutes later we had arrived. "It's over, Bella," I called behind me.

She opened her eyes and briefly looked around before unlocking her legs and dropping to the ground in an undignified heap. I froze for a second, unsure whether it would be appropriate to laugh or not. She looked so comical sprawled in the mud like she was that I soon decided I didn't care, and soon after that was roaring with laughter. That annoyed her, and she angrily got up and tried to brush the mud and forest debris off her jacket. This only resulted in her smearing it even further, and I didn't even try to control my next burst of laughter.

I think that last was too much, because she abruptly turned and started walking into the forest.

I caught up to her and slid my arm around her waist. "Where are you going, Bella?" I asked in my best you're-going-the-wrong-way voice.

"To watch a baseball game," she stubbornly replied. "You don't seem to be interested in playing anymore, but I'm sure the others will have fun without you."

This time I just said it. "You're going the wrong way."

She turned without looking at me and started walking back the way we came.

I caught up to her again. "Please don't be mad, I couldn't help myself. You should have seen your face." I chuckled again before I could catch it.

"Oh, I get it, you're the only one allowed to get pissed off at anyone around here." I could see she was thinking back to the incident in the parking lot when I manhandled her in order to get her home. It should be illegal or something to bring back incidents that far in the past.

"I was never mad at _you_, Bella. Don't you see?" _Don't choke on this, don't choke on this, _"I love you, Bella. It's a poor excuse for what I'm doing, but it's still true."

She looked down, and a slight smile crossed her lips when I said that. _Good choice of words, Edward! _"Now, please try to behave yourself," I said before leaning down to brush her lips with my own once again.

She sighed, with disappointment I think. "You promised you would have me home early, remember? We'd better get going."

I smiled. "Yes, ma'am."

I took her hand and led her out of the trees into the field where we would play. The others were already there. Esme, Emmett, and Rosalie were all sitting on a large rock, hanging out while Carlisle finished marking the bases. Jasper and Alice were throwing a ball back and forth, but they were throwing it so fast Bella couldn't see it, if her expression was any indication. Esme got up and walked over as soon as she saw us. "Was that you we heard?"

"It sounded like a bear choking," Emmett supplied as he followed Esme over.

Bella smiled hesitantly. "That was him," she said, pointing up at me. _Et tu, Bella? _

I drew her against me and squeezed her shoulders. "Bella was being unintentionally hilarious," I said, getting in a dig of my own.

Alice spotted us and ran over. "It's time." Just then a deep rumble of thunder shook the forest beyond, and then crashed toward town. "Let's go." Alice grabbed Emmett's hand and led him toward the field.

"Ready for some ball?" I asked Bella.

"Go team!" she said semi-enthusiastically. I didn't think she was truly happy to be there. I laughed, mussed her hair for kicks and grins, and took off after Alice and Emmett. Esme walked out into the field with Bella while we did the mundane things like choosing teams and who would bat first. Bella and Esme talked about Esme's past. I guess she had a child that died at one time, and the depression from losing it caused her to throw herself off a cliff. Carlisle found her broken and near death in the morgue, and turned her so he would have a companion while I was gone on my "rebellion." For whatever reason, she stuck with us, even after she figured out exactly what her situation was.

Carlisle sidled up to me. "Come along, Edward. You're on _my_ team."

"Joy," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. My team was in the field first, and I took left field. Alice was pitching.

Emmett took some practice swings with one of our aluminum bats. I know, it might not seem practical to use aluminum considering how strong we are (I mean, the ball would literally go for miles), but if we used wooden ones, we would go through lots of them in a very short amount of time as we reduced one after the other to splinters with the force of our swings. Even with aluminum, we still would probably need more than one.

"All right," Esme called in a clear voice, "Batter up."

Alice didn't even wind up. One moment she was standing with the ball in her hands, the next it was smoking in Jasper's hands, and Esme called, "Strike one!"

I heard Bella ask Esme, "How do you know what's a strike?"

"If they don't hit it, it's a strike," she answered back. Ok, I admit it, we only skimmed the rules, got a basic idea of how the game is played, and now we're just making stuff up as we go along; whatever sounds good at the time, really. Our teams weren't really set, either; I mean, what can you really do with only six people? Still, I suppose it was kind of fun, even if it was far outside our normal "recreational activities."

Eventually I found another reason to like playing this game: fun quotes. For example, after I caught yet another fly ball hit by Jasper, he burst out, "Dammit, Edward, will you stop grabbing my balls all the time!" Everyone stood frozen for an instant, then burst out laughing, everyone except Jasper, who was embarrassed, and Esme, who wanted to know what was so funny.

"But-Jasper," I gasped out, "I thought you liked it when I handled your balls!" That set everyone off again, and at that point the game might as well have been over. Jasper stood off to the side sulking; I swear if he still had blood he would be blushing furiously.

"I guess this is what I get for doing you a favor, Edward," he muttered angrily. "See if I ever help _you_ out again."

I walked over and placed my hand on his head, like he was a little kid. "Aw, don't be such a spazz, Jasper."

"I am not a spazz," he said through clenched teeth, ducking away from my hand.

"You are so a spazz. You're like 'Spazzy McSpazzper'…That's your name."

"Don't call me that." Even Jasper could be cute once in a while.

"Whatever you say, 'Spazzper.'"

"Dammit. I'm never gonna live this down, am I?"

I grinned. "Not for a very long time."

Suddenly Alice stiffened. **_Edward. _**_Oh snap. _

Now the others noticed, too. "What is it, Alice?" Carlisle asked.

"They were traveling faster than I anticipated. I looked down the wrong path before."

"What changed?" said Jas-I mean, _Spazz_per.

"They heard us playing, and it changed their path."

We all quickly looked at Bella—she was basically a cheeseburger that would add further complication to this already sticky situation.

"How soon?" asked Carlisle.

"Less than five minutes," said Alice. "They're running—they want to play baseball with us. It intrigues them."

Carlisle gave me a questioning look, basically asking 'Can you get her out of here?'

I shook my head. "Besides, the last thing we need is for them to catch her scent and start hunting."

"How many?" asked Emmett.

"Three," answered Alice.

"Three! Let them come." He flexed his arms; he looked ready for a good fight.

I linked the family's minds in order to facilitate better and quicker communication, and finally Carlisle came up with a plan of action.

"For now let's just continue the game. Alice said they were simply curious."

We began playing again, but barely even half-heartedly. Batters only bunted, and everyone stayed in the infield. It was, predictably, a noticeably quieter game. Finally, after what seemed like hours of anxious anticipation, we all sensed the other vampires approaching from the forest.

**This one's for you, Tori Scanga, arguably my biggest fan and definitely my most frequent reviewer. I hope I have granted your request to your (partial?) satisfaction. That's right, folks, I am open to requests, and am more likely to grant them to those who review and tell me how awesome my story is (or have suggestions to make it better). I like hearing what you like, what you hate, what you love. Tell me anything! Luv ya!**

***Oh. My. Goodness. I chose the word "instructed" here because I thought that would help illustrate and highlight the domineering attitude this Edward has toward Bella. Like, 'he doesn't request, he orders, he instructs.' Turns out that Meyer used the _exact same word_ for that part. And this is seriously supposed to be a healthy relationship? Give me a break.**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 17

They emerged one by one from the forest edge, ranging a dozen meters apart. Two men and a woman. Two deferred to one of the men, flanking him on either side. They approached our group, confident yet wary, predators encountering a larger group of their own kind. They were obviously nomads, evidenced by their clothing. Instead of the cotton-poly blends preferred by most of us Cullens, they had trekker gear: jeans and button down shirts made of heavy fabric. The woman might have been wearing canvas pants; it was too hard to tell from back here. One other major difference: Cullens' eyes are frequently some shade of yellow or yellow-orange due to our diet of mostly animal blood; theirs were dark red. They only feasted on human blood. This…could be bad.

The leader stepped toward Carlisle, leader to leader. "We thought we heard something fun going on. I'm Laurent, and these are Victoria and James," he said, indicating his comrades behind him.

"I'm Carlisle. This is my family, Emmett and Jasper, Rosalie, Esme and Alice, Edward and Bella." I couldn't help but notice Carlisle deliberately included Bella in our "group." He continued speaking with Laurent, about hunting grounds and such, and I checked out the newcomers.

Laurent and Victoria were fairly predictable, typical of our kind. Feeding on humans, but for the most part not looking for any trouble. Like us, only we went more out of our way to _avoid_ trouble than they did. James was a different story.

_Aw, crap on a sandwich. _James was a tracker, meaning his primal senses were much better than the average vampire's, better than any of the Cullens,' I'd bet. Usually trackers had been actual hunters and trackers while still human, but not always. Back in the day, many Native American vampires became trackers after they were turned. They were known for "choosing" their prey, much the same way I'd chosen Bella (though for different reasons), and were apparently single-minded and tenacious about getting it. In other words, things were about to become very, very complicated.

As I was considering this, a wisp of breeze blew past us, through Bella's hair and over to our "visitors." _Uh-oh…_ I could clearly hear the thoughts of James, the tracker flaunting Laurent, almost as if he were shouting. _**Ooh, looks like a vampire's got himself a pet. **_He could smell me and Bella all over each other. He looked into my eyes and smiled. I looked into a face of **pure evil. **Images of past cruelties played through his mind: him as he slowly drowned a sack full of kittens, their mother in a cage nearby, yowling; setting squirrels' tails on fire before releasing them into the forest, uncaring whether or not he started a wildfire; raping a 13-year-old girl and demanding that she beg for it; and all this _before_ he was turned. Then Bella's face bloomed in his mind, marking her as his next prey, and I felt my lips lifting into a snarl. _Think again, tracker. Nobody is allowed to torture Bella but me._

Even Laurent had caught a whiff of Bella. "What's this?" he exclaimed in open surprise. "You brought a snack?" He took a step toward her. Instantly I crouched a little, growling menacingly. He settled back again.

"She's with us," Carlisle insisted.

"But she's _human_."

"Yes. So?" Emmett drifted to Carlisle's side in obvious support of his position.

"Hmmm…it appears we have a lot to learn of each other…but we'd like to accept your invitation." I guess Carlisle had invited them to our house. Oh goody. "And of course, we will not harm the human girl." His eyes flicked to Bella and back to Carlisle. "We won't hunt in your territory, as I said before." I was somewhat relieved to "read" that Laurent, at least, was serious about his statement. James was another matter entirely. He had Bella's scent, and was now determined to have her.

Carlisle was speaking again. "We'll show you the way. Jasper, Rosalie, Esme, you're with me. Alice, Emmett, you two go with Edward and Bella to get the Jeep."

Within minutes we were at the Jeep, me piggy-backing Bella once again. As soon as I got behind the wheel, I just started driving. I was thankful for the harness, because our ride going out was much rougher than coming in.

"Where are we going?" No one deigned to answer Bella's demand. "Dammit, Edward, where are you taking me?"

"We have to get you far away from here—now."

"Turn around! You have to take me home!" _Like I'm going to take orders from you, you whiny wench? _That thought almost made me smile. Heh. Whiny wench...Back to the immediate problem. "Edward, you can't do this! Take me back—Charlie will call the FBI! They'll be all over your family. You'll have to leave, hide away forever!"

"Calm down. It's not like we haven't done it before." She was getting frantic.

"Edward, pull over. Let's just talk this through." Alice's voice was calm, a welcome reprieve from the screeching hysterics of Bella.

"You don't understand," I told her. He's a tracker, Alice, did you _see_ that? A tracker!"

"Pull over, Edward," she said again, this time in her I-know-something-you-don't tone of voice. I angrily pulled over to the shoulder and braked to such a quick stop that Bella was thrown back against the seat when our forward momentum stopped.

"Listen to me, Alice. I saw his mind. You know about trackers, how it's their obsession, their passion, and he wants Bella. He begins his hunt tonight."

"He doesn't know where—"

"How long do you think it will take him to cross her scent in town? He's planned for this ever since he realized Bella was human."

Bella suddenly realized where her scent would eventually lead James and began straining at her harness again. "Charlie!" she shrieked. "You can't leave him there! You can't leave him!" _Oh, _now_ you care about the father that you don't even acknowledge as father, except to his face? Brilliant. _

"She's right." Alice again. Wasn't anyone with me on this?

"I think we have to take her back," said Emmett.

"What?!"

"He's no match for us, Edward. He won't touch her."

"You didn't see—you don't understand. Once he commits to a hunt, he follows through. We'll have to kill him."

"That's not a bad option." Emmett grinned, revealing his pointy teeth.

"And the female," I continued, "She's with him. I think they're bound to each other. If it turns into a fight, the leader will go along with them, too."

"There's another option," Alice said quietly.

"What—" _**Connect us with Carlisle, **_she thought, loud enough to break through what I was going to say. _**You, me, Emmett, and Carlisle. Can you do it at this distance, Edward? **_Maybe Carlisle _did_ have an idea. This whole relationship with Bella vastly amused him, but in the end he had proved to be on my side (_at a price_). _Shut up, brain! _

I reached out with my telepathy, and found Carlisle along the edge of my range. I think being bound to him helped, but I wasn't about to be glad for the condition. When I felt I had a solid connection with him, I linked Emmett and Alice in with us. Just then Bella spoke up.

"Does anyone want to hear my plan?"

"No," I said dismissively. I wanted to hear what Carlisle thought we should do. I had to admit, he always seemed to be "the man with a plan." _**Edward, I must confess at this point I don't have a plan. **__WHAT?! __**Let's listen to Bella's. Maybe we can work something out from that. **_His words surprised us all into silence. Bella took that as tacit permission to continue.

"Listen. You take me back. I tell my dad I want to go home to Phoenix. I pack my bags. We wait until this tracker is watching, and then we run. He'll follow us and leave Charlie alone. Charlie won't call the FBI on your family. Then you can take me any damned place you want." _Wow, the bitch bites again._

_**I **_**like**_** that plan. **_Wow. Bella came up with a plan that Carlisle liked. We all stared in silence at Bella, stunned at this new development. She actually showed some average intelligence just now.

"It's not a bad idea, really," Emmett said.

_**Edward, relay the plan I explain to you, exactly as I tell you. This will be a very delicate operation, but if it works, you and Bella may **_**both**_** get what you want out of this. **__Sweet._

"Listen, Bella. You're leaving tonight, whether the tracker sees or not. You tell Charlie that you can't stand another minute in Forks. Tell him whatever story works. Pack the first things your hands touch, and then get into your truck. I don't care what he says to you. You have fifteen minutes. Do you hear me? Fifteen minutes from the time you cross the doorstep."

I listened for several minutes as Carlisle laid out the rest of his plan for this. _**Where are you going with this, Carlisle?**_

_**Do NOT question me on this, Edward. **_I winced. His "voice" stung like the crack of a whip, linked as we were. _**I will reveal everything to you later, but for now you must trust me that this will work.**_

I mentally sighed. _**All right.**_ I looked up at the others again.

"This is how it's going to happen. When we get to the house, if the tracker is not there, I will walk her to the door. Then she has fifteen minutes. Emmett, you take the outside of the house. Alice, you get the truck. I'll be inside as long as she is. After she's out, you two can take the Jeep home and tell Carlisle. If the tracker _is_ there, we just keep driving."

"We'll make it there before he does," Alice said confidently. I trusted her on that. "And when Bella leaves, you should stay in town, Edward. You, too, Emmett; you'll get a better crack at him if you stay."

"What?!" we both yelled. "You think I should let her go alone?" I asked incredulously.

"Of course not. Jasper and I will go with her."

_**I think the idea has merit. **__Of course you would, "father."_

"It will totally work," Bella said. "You hang out here for a week, show Charlie you haven't kidnapped me, give James a run-around and get him off my trail, then come and meet me."

"Meet you where?"

"In Phoenix, of course."

"He'll hear that's where you're going."

"You'll make that look like a ruse. He'll know that we know he's listening. He won't believe that I'm actually going where I say I am."

"That's pretty diabolical." Emmett sounded amused.

"And if that doesn't work?" I asked.

"There are several million people in Phoenix," Bella replied.

"He can figure out where your house is easily enough. I think he's heard of a phone book."

"I won't go home. I'm old enough to get my own place."

_**Let it go, Edward. It's a decent plan, and I think I know how to make it work now.**_

I turned to Alice. "Can Jasper handle this?"

"Give him some credit, Edward. He's been doing very well, all things considered."

"Can _you_ handle this?" She turned her lips into a sharp-toothed grimace. _**Can I try her, Edward? Please? Just a taste, that's all.**_

_**Leave her alone, Alice. **_With my luck, after Alice was done with her, Bella would be bound to Alice. "And keep your opinions to yourself," I told her.

_____________________________________________

**Ok, new game, readers! What are your favorite "LOL" moments from this story? Send me your favorites in a review or PM, along with the chapter (if applicable), and I will add it to the list on my profile. Examples: Bella swallowing goldfish (chap. 12), Inner Edward (no chapter needed, as it appears in several). **

**Can't wait to hear from you! Even if you don't participate in this game, I hope you still read and review!  
**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Charlie was waiting up for her when we got there. I could see him through the living room windows. He seemed worried. Not like I cared or anything.

As soon as the Jeep's engine went silent, we all went deathly still, silent as the grave, listening and searching for any tell-tale signs of James.

Nothing.

"James isn't here. Let's go."

Emmett reached back to help Bella out of her harness. "Don't worry, Bella. We'll take care of things here quickly." Aw, look, a measly little threat of torture and death and Bella gets all teary-eyed; she thinks they're sentimental tears; how quaint and cute.

"I can do this." She sniffed and turned to face me. "Just follow the plan, okay? Keep Charlie safe for me. He's not going to like me very much after this, and I want the chance to apologize later."

"Get inside, Bella. We have to hurry." I wasn't about to tell her I had no intention of finishing this with her still human.

"I love you Edward. I will always love you, no matter what happens now." _Yeah, yeah, glad to hear it. _"One more thing: Don't listen to another word I say tonight." _You think I would believe anything like that, now of all times? Honestly _darling_, how dumb do you think I am?_

"Go away, Edward!" she yelled, slamming the door in my face.

Thus began a fake tirade about how she hated it here, how _she_ broke up with _me_, and she was going back to Phoenix. I had to hand it to Charlie, he kept his cool remarkably well, considering he was dealing with a hysterical teenage girl (the hysterics weren't faked, but they were amusing). He caught Bella by the elbow in the kitchen, clearly intending to persuade her to wait it out, at least for tonight. So she pulled her most hurtful, devastating tactic.

"Just let me go, Charlie! It didn't work out, okay? I really, really _hate_ Forks!" Oh, that was cruel. It was exactly what her mother said to him sixteen years ago when she left, taking Bella with her. Charlie stood in the kitchen, shocked beyond words, beyond movement, as Bella joined me in her truck. The best part of this was, if I had my way, that would be the last conversation those two would ever have. That would make Charlie's sadness and grief twice as deep. How awful! I almost shivered with glee to think of it.

I immediately took the wheel. "You wouldn't be able to find the house," I told Bella when she objected. Lights flared suddenly behind us, and Bella's eyes widened with horror. "It's just Alice. Relax," I told her.

"The tracker?"

"—Caught the end of your performance. Charlie's safe; the tracker's running after us, now."

"Can we outrun him?"

"No." I stomped on the gas, trying to coax a little more speed out of her clunker, anyway.

"I didn't realize you were still so bored with small-town life," I said, attempting an attitude of "I'm trying to distract you," but really just trying to twist the knife about what she had said to Charlie. The more stress I put on her at this juncture, the better, as far as I was concerned. "Maybe I was just flattering myself that I was making life more interesting for you."

She drew her legs up to her chest. "That was the same thing my mom said when she left him. You could say I was hitting below the belt."

"Don't worry. He'll forgive you." _At your grave, with any luck on my side. _

"Why did this happen?" Her voice broke on the words. "Why me? I was there, sure, but it didn't bother the other two. Why did James choose me?" _Because you're just that super special awesome, Bella. Why do you _think_?_

"I got a good look at his mind. By yourself, he might not have bothered, but when I defended you, he zeroed in on that. He thinks of himself as a hunter and nothing else. He doesn't like to be thwarted, no matter how small the circumstances. Now we've presented him with a challenge—a clan of others as strong as him who are protecting a fragile, vulnerable element. This has become an entertaining game to him, maybe his most exciting ever." I stared ahead. "I don't think I have any choice but to kill him."

"How do you kill a vampire?"

I gave her an evil grin. "We have our ways."

"Oh." She was silent a blessed moment. "Will the other two fight with him?"

"The woman will. Laurent…he was only with them for convenience, so…"

She glanced back. "Is he still following?"

"Yeah, but he won't attack the house. Not tonight."

We arrived at home. Emmett carried Bella inside, sheltering her from a blindside assault. The family was waiting up for us. "He's tracking us," I informed the room.

"I was afraid of that," said Laurent. I could see he didn't really want any part of this; he just wanted to be left alone, so I dismissed him as a threat. Alice went to confer with Jasper about our plans and their part of it, and they disappeared up the stairs.

"What will he do?" Carlisle inquired of Laurent. "Can you stop him?"

"I am sorry. I was afraid that your boy's defense of this one would set him off." He gestured toward Bella. "Nothing stops James when he's on the hunt. You can't bring him down. I've never seen anything like him in my three hundred years. He's absolutely lethal. Are you sure it's all worth your efforts?"

I glowered at him, growling.

"You're going to have to make a choice," Carlisle told him.

He considered for a moment. "I won't get in the middle of this. You're all right, and I won't go up against James. I think I will head north toward Denali—I hear there's a clan up there; perhaps I can join them."

"Good choice." Carlisle solemnly nodded to him, then jerked his head in obvious dismissal. "And good luck." Laurent quickly left.

Carlisle looked at me. "Is he close?"

"Yeah; he's circling around to meet the woman now."

"What's the plan?" Carlisle was handing this off to me. I understood; for a while, at least, this was my show.

"We'll lead him off, and Jasper and Alice will run her south."

"And then?"

"When Bella's clear, we hunt him."

"I guess there's no other choice." _**I like the way you think, Edward. **_His current grim visage was for Bella's benefit—our whole "good vampire" thing, though how Carlisle was able to keep it up even in this situation was beyond me.

"Esme, will you take Bella upstairs and trade clothes with her?"

"Of course," she replied, and literally swept Bella into her arms to carry her up the steps. Esme was the only one I would trust with that job right now. She was charming to keep around, but didn't take much hunting/feeding initiative on her own, and they would be alone in a room upstairs. Within minutes they were coming downstairs again, ready to run, clothing swapped. Carlisle handed cell phones—secure line—to Esme and Alice.

"Esme and Rosalie will be taking your truck, Bella. Alice, Jasper, take the Mercedes." Alice's eyes lit up like he had just announced we were going to a party. Carlisle looked at me, Esme and Emmett. "We're taking the Jeep.

"Alice. Will they take the bait?"

Alice went into a light trance for about a minute, closing her eyes. When she opened them se announced, "He'll track you, while the woman follows the truck. We will be able to leave after that."

"Let's go." Carlisle strode out the door. I turned to Bella and lifted her up, planting a farewell kiss of sorts on her mouth. Then I turned away, and ran after Carlisle. We got into the Jeep, and drove off into the night.

________________________________________________________

So, either review or PM me...how would you prefer this to end? Bella dies? Gets turned? Lives and doesn't get turned? Dies but then gets saved by turning? Looking for some feedback, any feedback besides my loyal fanbase, although I **_always _**enjoy hearing from you guys (girls?)!


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Carlisle, Emmett and I sped off in the Jeep, north toward Canada. We had a duffle bag full of Bella's dirty clothes—gross, I know, but it was the only way to make sure they smelled enough like her to fool the tracker. We had it strapped into the harness with my jacket draped over it, to make it look like a person we were trying to hide.

It seemed to be working so far. James kept pace with the Jeep, eyes locked on our "Bella." His thoughts in my mind were basic, primal. He was waiting, biding his time to get at the person we were guarding.

We stopped at a convenience store to refill on gas and to get "Bella" some food. Carlisle pumped the gas and went inside to get some snacks and pay, while Emmett and I stood on opposite sides of the Jeep as sentries.

"Edward," Emmett said, "do you think we—"

"Quiet, Emmett, he can probably hear everything we say." James was keeping his distance, but was still being ultra-vigilant. _**Carlisle, hurry up! **_If we stayed much longer, James might realize that Bella was being unnaturally still…

Carlisle came out and we piled into the Jeep, Carlisle driving. He took us through some minimum maintenance back roads into Canada to avoid any investigations at the border, then returned to the main highway, on our way to Vancouver.

As we neared the city, Carlisle stopped at the top of a hill in order to get better reception, and called Esme. Emmett and I could hear their conversation clearly.

"Esme here."

"This is Carlisle. Where are you?"

"At Chief Swan's house, watching him, like you asked. He's a little weepy right now. Something happen recently?"

"Ok, excellent. Don't worry about the Chief. There's nothing you can do, and his problem will either work itself out or it won't. Is Rosalie anywhere around?"

"No, she's in town, tracking that other vampire, the woman, what's-her-name. Do you want me to go find her?"

"Negative. We need you to stay there and protect the Chief, to cover our collective asses if this doesn't work in Edward's favor. How's Rosalie doing, by the way?"

"They've already gone through the airport, been to the school, even the hospital. She's probably tracked her through most of Forks by now, and of course, the tracker's friend has come up empty-handed."

"Ok. Things are about to come to a head up here, and we'll meet you back in Forks then." He snapped the cell phone shut.

_**Back to Forks?? **_The thought came from James. Damn! I thought he couldn't hear from where he—then I felt a slight breeze from upwind. Under normal circumstances, James wouldn't be able to hear from where he was standing, but the breeze gave Carlisle's voice just enough push that James could hear enough. I could see the thoughts ticking through his mind as stalked his way around us, toward Vancouver. _**"We'll meet in Forks"—NOT "at home"—there's a third place—Bella said she was going home—snack foods are unopened-she's not here—Phoenix! **_

I turned to Carlisle. "Carlisle! James heard you talking. He figured out where Bella is!"

"Did he?" Carlisle casually flicked some lint off his shirt.

"Yes!" I held out my hand. "Let me use the phone." For once, he didn't even argue or chide me for being rude; he just handed it over. I called Alice's phone.

It barely rang once. "Alice here."

"Hey, it's Edward. First, is Bella all right?"

"Yes."

"Good. Listen, we were leading James away up north, but he just caught on and he isn't tracking us anymore. I was wondering of you could _see_ what he was up to."

"I just _saw_ him. He was in a room lined with mirrors, and there was a gold stripe running through the middle of them. For some reason he was playing a VCR, but I don't know what was on it. So he will get on a plane, and he will shortly be in that room."

"Thanks. Keep alert, will you? You know how Bella simply loves running toward trouble, especially if it's likely to get her killed."

"Yeah, ok."

"Put her on now, will you?"

"Sure."

"Hello?"

"Hi, Bella."

"Oh, Edward! I was so worried. Where are you?"

"We're outside of Vancouver. Bella, I'm sorry, but we lost him. He got suspicious and got on a plane, going back to Forks to meet up with Victoria, we think."

"I know. Alice _saw_ he got away."

"You don't have to worry, though. He won't find anything to lead him to you. You just stay there and wait until we find him again."

"I'll be fine. Is Esme with Charlie?"

"Yes. Victoria visited the house once, but while Charlie was away. Don't worry, he's safe with Esme and Rosalie watching. We'll be at Forks soon, so if the tracker gets anywhere near Forks, we'll have him."

"I miss you," she said softly into the receiver.

"I know. It's like you've taken some of me with you." _Insert obvious semen joke here._

"Come and get it then."

"Soon, as soon as I possibly can. I _will_ come for you."

"I love you."

"I'll come for you soon."

"I'll be waiting."

I flipped the phone closed and glared at Emmett. All through my conversation he had been making weird gestures and hand signals, and they seemed directed at me. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Narrating your conversation in mime," was what I thought I heard, but that couldn't have been right. That was insane.

"What?"

"It was Carlisle's idea. I was bored, so…"

I turned to look at Carlisle. He had the rearview mirror awkwardly turned toward him, and was carefully combing his hair. "Carlisle, what-are-you-doing? We need to leave, because James is going after Bella, because you screwed up the phone conversation and—"

He turned to look me in the eyes. "I didn't mess up, Edward."

I stood a moment, letting the implications of that sentence sink in. "You…You _meant_ to clue him in? To make him suspicious? To let him know where Bella is?"

"Of course. That was my plan all along." Now he was tying his shoes. They weren't untied; he was just untying them and then retying them again, probably to drive me crazy. It was working.

"Are we leaving anytime soon?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Soon." Carlisle stretched and shook out his limbs, as if he were limbering up for some kind of physical trial. "Ok, now we can go."

"Finally!" We all swiftly got in the Jeep, and Carlisle peeled out, headed for Vancouver.

"Edward, what time is it?" I told him. "Excellent. That puts us just behind James at the airport, and just missing his flight. We, of course, will be on the next one," he said as if this were all painfully obvious. Holy hell! He even knew the airport schedules! When did he have time to do all this?!

"Wait, Carlisle, why did you plan this so we would _miss_ his flight? Wasn't the idea to lure him out here and then turn the tables and hunt _him_?"

"Nope. This was for shits, giggles, and appearances, so James will think we don't want him to do precisely what we want him to."

I tried to work that out in my head. "Uh…come again?"

Carlisle explained slowly and clearly, as if speaking to a small child. "We want him to go to Phoenix, but he's less likely to if he knows we want him there."

"And we want him there, why?"

"So he can get Bella."

"Carlisle, I think you missed the point, I don't want Bella killed!"

"Edward, think things through for once! When is it easiest for a person to be turned?"

"When they're—oh!"

"Yes…"

"Carlisle, you are a sick, twisted, scheming manipulative bastard and at this moment I love you for it."

Emmett piped up, "Ok, now you guys are confusing me—what are you talking about?"

I answered, "In order for the turning to 'take' the best, Bella must believe that she will—"

"Die," Carlisle finished with an evil smile.


	21. Chapter 21

This is a really short set-up chapter. From Edward's viewpoint, though, it ends with Carlisle saying "This is going better than I'd hoped." Well, that's no kind of chapter, that's barely a prologue, so I worked in part of chapter 22 as well. It's still little better than a prologue, but all this stuff goes together in my mind, and the set-up for the showdown is complete! Mwahahahaaaa!

Chapter 21

Our phone rang about an hour into our flight. Carlisle answered. It was Alice.

"Bella just got a phone call." She was speaking low, almost whispering.

"From whom?"

"Well, we thought it was her mom at first, but then a masculine voice came on the line, but Bella kept talking like she was speaking to her mother."

"That sounds more than vaguely suspicious. Where is she now?"

"She's in the other room, writing a letter to her mother, she says. She is writing, but I'm not sure what or for whom."

"Ok. Keep her there until we land. Edward will mind-call you, and at that point, act out a believable scene where you 'lose' her, _if_ she makes a break for it. Understand?"

"What? You want me to let her go?"

"Yes, but only after we land and can make a "timely rescue." We need them both to believe that Bella's life is in peril. You do know where they have arranged to meet, right?"

"Yep. Gotcha. Keep her with us until Edward calls. Right?"

"That's my girl. We'll see you in Phoenix."

"Bye."

Carlisle looked over at me and smiled. "This is going better than I'd hoped."

We landed ten minutes early, and I called out _**We're heeerrrrre! **_to Alice and Jasper. They had come to the airport to meet us.

_**Great, she's been trying to escape the whole time we've been here, **_Alice replied.

Bella asked Jasper to take her to get some breakfast.

Bella's hastily concocted plans came through loud and clear for me. _**She's going to run, Jasper, **_I told him. _**There's a restroom a ways down; it has at least two openings, one a blind exit. She's planning to go in one way and out the other, toward the elevators. You, of course, are completely oblivious to this.**_

_**Of course. **_Jasper smiled. It was not a nice smile.

As we disembarked, I could easily pick out Bella's "voice" from the throng. Hers was the only one that was desperate _and_ frantic _and_ scared all at once. I watched through her eyes as she went into the bathroom, immediately left again through the other exit, and ran toward the elevators, recklessly flinging one hand in between the closing doors, breathlessly sprinting from one exit to the next. I couldn't help but laugh when she nearly smacked into a pair of automatic doors that didn't respond quickly enough to her haste.

Everyone was still psychically linked up with me, so they saw the near collision, too. We probably looked like a bunch of hyenas, giggling as we were at seemingly nothing. That girl is hilarious when she doesn't watch what she's doing. Bella exited the terminal and climbed aboard the first hotel shuttle she came across, and her "voice" was soon lost in the noise of Phoenix as it drove away.

"Now what?," Emmett asked.

"Now?" said Carlisle. "Now we go to their meeting place, avoid detection by James, and play "voyeur" for long enough that Bella believes she is dying, after which Edward and his band of Merry Men-" Carlisle gestured around at Emmett, Jasper, and Alice "-swoop in to rescue her, Edward turns her in order to "save her life," and we all get what we want and live happily ever after, ba-dum bum CH!"


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22-The End?

Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper, and I waited at the dance studio, ranged outside it at a point where James couldn't detect us. It turns out that's what Alice had _seen_: a room lined with mirrors, and a gold bar running through them; a dance studio. The bar, of course, was the balance/support bar that all dance and ballet studios are required to have. Or if they're not technically required, they might as well be, since I've never seen one without them. But I digress.

Alice was following Bella, to make sure she got where she was going. I guess she went to her mother's house first, expecting to find her there. That's where she made a phone call. Another communication with her would-be "tormentor." _Dream on, buddy, I've learned from the best, and you've got nothing on him. _I'm_ the one really tormenting her here, and she doesn't even realize that I'm the one doing it! Beat that! _Still, we did have to beat _him_ before this was over. That would likely be the fun part, though.

Whatever Bella talked about on the phone, it sent her hurrying through the streets of Phoenix to our location. Alice still trailed her, watching to make sure Bella didn't fuck this up in the way only she could—say, by tripping over a curb into the path of an oncoming car…for example.

In a few minutes we discovered what had caused her to become so frantic, when her mother's voice rang out from within, "Bella? Bella?!"

_**Edward, why didn't you tell me about this? **_Carlisle asked.

_**I didn't know, I swear, and I would also swear that there are only two beings in that building. As near as I can tell she's not there!**_

It soon turned out to be a simple video recording. That was why it sounded real; in a way, it was.

The VCR stopped playing. Someone had used the remote to shut it off. Here came that someone now. James strode calmly into the room, remote control in hand. "Sorry about that, Bella, but isn't it better that your mother didn't really have to be involved in this?"

"Yes," Bella answered him.

"You don't sound angry that I tricked you." He sure was cock-sure of himself.

"I'm not." That's because she was so scared now that any other emotion was pushed out.

James considered this for several minutes as he walked slow circles around Bella, forcing her to turn to keep him in sight. The constant movement increased her unease, and her nerves stretched even further. Too much more time and she would break. That might be fun, though. After all, Alice went nuts, and she's a pretty fun girl to hang with.

James began talking again. "I suppose you're going to tell me that your boyfriend will avenge you?"

"No, I don't think so. At least, I asked him not to."

"And his reply?"

"I don't know. I left him a letter." I looked around at the others. _Letter?_ Alice waved something over her head. Oh, I guess it wasn't that important, then. I could read it later, maybe.

"How romantic," James continued, "a last letter. Do you think he will honor it? I do hope so. This was all just a little too easy, too quick. To be honest, I'm disappointed. I expected a greater challenge. Turns out I only needed a little luck." _And a push from Carlisle, you cocky ass. _

James went on in boring detail about how he figured out where she was, attributing every break to his own skills and intelligence. I wasn't sure if he was saying that to make Bella think she couldn't get away from him, or if he really believed it. I think it was a little of both. They're both ridiculous. Or Carlisle is just that good. Or, again, both.

Ugh, finally, his "villain narrative" was over. "Very easy, you know, not really up to my standards. I'm hoping I'm not wrong about your boyfriend, Edward, was it? Would you mind, very much, if I left a little letter of my own for your Edward?"

I saw, through their eyes, a digital video recorder set up on top of the stereo._ Ooh, a movie. _

_**DIBS!! **_Alice cried out. _**I want that video when this is over! **_Spooky girl, I don't mind saying again.

"Now, before we begin…" _Dear Lord, how much longer is this guy going to TALK? It's_ _like he doesn't even _want_ to hurt Bella or something__**. What are we watching here, a soap opera? Emmett, keep an eye out for James' long lost identical twin brother!**_

_**Who happens to be pregnant! **_Jasper added.

_**And Victoria's the father! **_Alice finished.

I was certain we were going to blow our cover any second now with a burst of laughter from someone. Even now it was all we could do to not roll around laughing in whatever hiding place we'd chosen.

Suddenly I heard something that seemed significant, though I couldn't place how.

"…he stole her from the asylum where he worked, and as soon as he freed her he made her safe. The old vampire made her a strong new vampire, and there was no reason for me to touch her then. *sigh* I killed the old one in vengeance."

_**Hey, that's MY story, **_Alice said, sitting up. _**I always wondered what happened to my sire. **_She seemed only mildly surprised, as if she just discovered that it was warmer outside than she expected. She didn't care all that much, but was interested because it involved her.

"Alice?" Bella realized the significance of James' story.

"Yes, your little friend. What a shame. She did smell so delicious. I still regret that I never got to taste her. She smelled better than you do, actually. Still, you do have a very nice smell."

At this point I was straining my telepathic ability to its limits, monitoring everything happening inside while keeping my presence hidden, as well as keeping everyone linked to me.

I cut off the motley crew, except for Carlisle. _**Hey! It was just getting good! **_I heard from Emmett, before I focused my full concentration on what was happening in the studio.

James was toying with Bella now. He stood in front of her, caressing her hair, her face, running his fingers lightly over her neck. "Well, I suppose we should get on with it." He started walking around Bella again, studying her as if she were some interesting art exhibit instead of a person. Then he moved into a crouch, and Bella became terrified. His lips curled back into a snarl, and Bella decided to run.

We all knew it was pointless, but the panic in her made it seem the best option. I supposed it was. "Fight or flight," right? Can't fight, so the only other option is to flee. He was suddenly in front of her, moving faster than her eyes could track. He struck her chest to stop her, then picked her up and flung her against one of the mirrors. She fell, slumped to the floor. The glass cracked all the way through, and small pieces tinkled as they fell around her.

Bella was stunned from the impact; it took her a few seconds to register exactly what had happened.

James studied the visual the mirrors provided. "That's a very nice effect. I thought this room would be visually dramatic for my little film. That's why I picked this place. Perfect, isn't it?"

Bella ignored him, opting instead to try crawling away, since she was still too dazed to stand. He was over her again in a flash. He stomped on Bella's leg, and everyone who was tuned in could hear the distinctive _snap_ of bone suddenly breaking. _Everyone_ heard Bella scream after that.

"Would you like to rethink your request?" James asked pleasantly. He nudged Bella's broken leg, and she cried out in pain again. _**Get ready to signal everyone, Edward, **_Carlisle ordered me.

James walked over to Bella, this time carrying a large piece of glass. "You know, this really hasn't been very much fun, and you know what? I'm blaming you." He abruptly smashed the pane over Bella's head, and I lost contact with her.

Carlisle gave the order we were waiting for. _** NOW! **_

We burst in from every door—breaking it down, in at least one case.

"Battle cries everyone!" Emmett yelled as we entered the chamber where James and Bella were. _What makes a good battle cry? Uhhh…Well, I guess—_"For Bella!"

"For dismembering!" cried Emmett.

"For Pussy!"*

"WHAT?!" Emmett and I both said. He stopped and spun to stare at Jasper. I slowed my charge and turned my head to look at him briefly.

Bad idea. When I turned my head back toward James, I got a harsh introduction to his fist as he sucker-punched me. If I had been human, I'm pretty sure his fist would have gone through my nose, into my skull, and out the other side. As it was, though, I'm still pretty sure he broke my nose, and I know I saw stars from the force of it.

James picked me up from where I was lying dazed, lifted me over his head, and threw me against the mirrors opposite Bella. I hit them, shattering each one I hit, and fell heavily to the floor. I noticed with some bemusement that Emmett and Jasper were still arguing over Jasper's "battle cry."

"What kind of a battle cry is that?"

"We had a cat when I was mortal, named Pussycat, and eventually it got shortened to Pussy. I loved that cat. Anyway, it's my battle cry and I can make it whatever I want."

Now James was straddling me, pounding my face with his not-insignificant strength. I reached my hand up the inside of his leg, searching for that little sweet spot—hoped that was it. I grabbed as much flesh as I could between my thumb and finger, squeezed, and _twisted_.**

James grunted in pain and automatically rolled off of me. Good, pressure points still counted for something, even with vampires.

I used the momentary distraction to look back at Jasper and Emmett. They were _still_ arguing! "Guys, a little help here?" I managed to yell, right before James tackled me from behind. This time, as I hit the floor, I managed to position one hand so that the floor forced my elbow up and into James' face, breaking _his_ nose. He hastily backed up off me, reacting to the sudden pain. I walked up to him, ready to pay him back blow-for-blow, when it quite suddenly became unnecessary. Emmett's foot came from out of nowhere and abruptly removed James' head from his shoulders. Dude was strong, no doubt about it. I stared in shock as James' head lolled on the floor nearby, and presently I noticed that Emmett's removal of his head was not as clean as I first thought.

I looked down and saw fluid sprayed over my shirt. Looking into a mirror, I could see it on my face too. "Eww! Ugh, Emmett, you got James guts all over me!" Over my impromptu chorus of "Ew, yuck!," Emmett lifted James' body.

"Hey Jasper! Look, a Wish Vampire!"***

Jasper clapped his hands in imitation of an excited little kid. "Ooh! Ooh! I wanna break the Wish-Vampire with you!"

"Well then, come on down!"

"Aw, I wanted to play Wish Vampire," Alice pouted. She and Carlisle were over with Bella, examining her physical state.

Jasper rushed over and grabbed an arm and leg from one side of the body. Emmett grabbed the other arm and leg. I moved out of the way. Then both pulled until the body ripped open with a sickening squelching sound. Venom and guts spilled out from between the two halves, and it was pretty clear who the winner was. **Not **James, and Emmett, with the biggest half.

"So Emmett, what did you wish for?" I asked.

"I wished for the opportunity to tear this vampire in half. Wishes _do_ come true!"

I had to laugh at that. Emmett, Jasper and Alice all chuckled, too.

"Edward." Carlisle was calling me over. _Oh yeah, Bella._

I went over to her. She was moaning. "It hurts…"

"Watch her leg. It's broken," Carlisle warned me. "I think there may be some broken ribs, too. They are at least bruised or cracked."

Bella moaned again. "So hot…burning…" she murmured. What? What was burning? "My hand…" I looked at her hand. There were distinctive bite marks in it. Then I realized what had happened. James had done it.

"My hand is burning!" Bella suddenly screamed.

"Carlisle, her hand!"

"He bit her. I can't believe it." Carlisle's voice was quiet.

"Edward, you should just leave it," Alice said softly.

"What?"

"No. He can't." Carlisle. We all turned to look at him. He was staring down at Bella. "If she's turned now, it will be by _his_ venom. James. She won't be bound to you that way. She won't be bound to anyone. Still, there may be a chance."

"What?" I begged.

"See if you can suck the venom back out." _**Then you can replace it with yours.**_

"Will that work?" Alice asked.

"I don't know." Now he looked up at me. "But it's the only chance Edward has now."

"Carlisle, I don't know if I can do that." I had never been able to suck a human's blood without draining them, not like Alice could do, had done. Still, if she could do it, couldn't I?

"It's your decision, Edward, either way. But really, do you want all of this to have been for nothing, in the end? Don't forget the price you've already paid." There was that wicked gleam in his eyes again.

Suddenly I wanted to show him up, show him that I could do this, even though he mocked me and basically told me I wasn't capable. I would show him I was up to the task.

Suddenly Bella lurched in pain. "Edwaaaard!"

I all but leaped to her side. Seizing her bitten hand and holding it immobile, I bit into it close to where James had done earlier, but closer to her shoulder to head off the venom already surging through her.

Her blood flowed warm and thick around and through my teeth and down my throat. Have you ever drunk eggnog? Its consistency is kind of like that. It tasted of the familiar tang of iron, a hint of freesia under-taste and—I nearly gagged—the taste of another vampire's venom. I guess this is what it tastes like: It was as if someone made a dish using a certain strong spice, but wound up using too much of it, so what would usually be good and add to the already luscious flavor overwhelms any subtler seasonings, meaning all of them. In a word, gag-worthy. Still, it was human blood, and my first taste had summoned the blood-lust within me. Simply put, I had started, and now I didn't want to stop until I had drained her. It didn't help that I could taste that there was less of James' venom in her now than there had been. It made her blood taste sweeter.

Now all the venom was out, and I was lost. Her blood tasted so delectable I would have groaned with ecstasy, except my throat was occupied with swallowing.

Suddenly I felt someone's thumb and finger come between my teeth on either side of my mouth. Before I could completely register what was happening, Carlisle had pried my chompers loose of Bella's skin and flung me away so hard-by my upper jaw-that I hit the wall behind me with a _smack_ and slid down until I was sitting on the floor. I was immediately up and lunging at Bella again, desperate to feed some more. I heard Carlisle say, "Emmett—" and then I was pinned to the wall again at the shoulders, by Emmett this time. "Please, let me have one more mouthful, a taste, just a taste, not even a mouthful, let me go Emmett—"

Carlisle stomped over to stand next to Emmett, and abruptly backhanded my face so hard it literally snapped my neck. At Carlisle's nod, Emmett set me down on my feet. Using both hands, I grabbed my head and jerked it around with a sickening pop and cracking so it was facing forward again, emitting a second crunch as the bones lined up again. Now I was angry. Where had _that_ come from? "OW! Carlisle, what the _hell_?" I demanded.

His hard gaze was unwavering and unapologetic. "Good, you're sane again. Or did you _want_ to forget all about the binding?" His words and my reaction felt like he was scolding me. Perhaps he was. "Come. There may still be time."

We both turned and began moving toward Bella. I was in control of myself now, but Bella was fading. She would drift into unconsciousness soon, then she would be impossible for me to reach. I hoped we were not too late.

_______________________________________________________________________________

**That's all for this chapter! Not the end. Mwahaha!** This _was _going to be two chapters, though, so I was _that_ merciful toward you. Next chapter is the end, I promise. I'm such a tease. He's a bad influence on me. "Edward or Carlisle?" I don't know! Maybe both, since one taught the other, but either way, I'm a literary tease! It shouldn't be too long, though, I'm rushing to get this done.

*I wish this was original, but it's not. It is hilarious, though, so I borrowed it from "Looking For Group," a hilarious webcomic that I read regularly. The line there was "For pony!" I thought mine would be funnier, in this context.

**This is real. Inner thigh, more toward the back than the front, grab some flesh, pinch and twist. I learned it in a self-defense course. It works marvelously. It actually does work on a person straddling you. Remember it.

***Another bit from "Looking For Group." There, it was a troll or dwarf or something, but I thought it would work equally well here.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Endings

I really couldn't decide on one ending; I could see it ending two ways equally, so I decided to write them both. Hope everyone gets what they wanted, and if not now, then later on! **Read, review, and send me your LOL moments!**

**Ending the First: In Which Everyone Gets What They Want**

Seventeen-year-old Isabella Swan was pronounced dead that day at 4:13 pm by visiting physician Carlisle Cullen, said the local papers. "Cause of death was smoke inhalation, from the fire that burned down the dance studio where her body was found. Investigators believe she was caught in the fire after debris fell and it broke her leg. Police suspect that this was an arson fire, but there are no suspects at this time." She was survived by her parents, Charlie and Renee Swan.

... ... ...

I hung out in the background during her funeral. It was held during the late afternoon into early evening, but for reasons of my own I attended anyway. If I stood west of everyone, they would think my skin was an optical illusion caused by the setting sun.

Her parents were in attendance of course, as well as a few other extended family members. Some kids from her school in Phoenix were there, too. Poor Charlie; he really did look pretty pathetic, standing there quietly sobbing. All he could think about was their last conversation, her declaration of hatred for the town he loved, and by association, him. Her mother kept crying and saying how she didn't know what could have _possessed_ Bella to go to her old dance studio, she didn't have any _business_ there—I was glad when she and that guy she was with finally left.

Then it was just me and Charlie. He noticed me standing there after a moment, and came over. "Hey."

"Hello, Chief Swan."

"So, uh, I guess you really liked her didn't you?"

"Yes, sir, I did. She meant a lot to me. I never meant things to end the way they did."

His gaze went far away. "I loved her so much. I thought that when she moved in with me we'd finally have the chance to…" his voice broke. Guess he still wasn't done crying. If he only knew.

It was growing dark. We exchanged a few more funeral-we're-sad words, and Chief Swan wandered back to his rental car.

And none too soon. My sensitive vampire ears picked up the sound of stirring down below. She was waking.

I thought back to the pivotal moment a few days ago….

Carlisle and I hurried over to Bella.

"Hold on," I told her. "This will hurt, and for that I'm sorry, but it will only be for a while. Do you understand?"

She nodded, and her eyes were full of pain and fear, but there was longing there, too. She was ready, if I did it now.

I bit her again, concentrating this time on giving fluid instead of taking it, and whispering in the back of her mind, so she thought it was herself, things like, 'I want you, Edward, I will get through this for you, so I can be with you, I would do anything for you…' until she took up the mantra herself in her own mind, and all she knew was the pain, and that the key to ending her pain was me…

Now I heard a distinct pounding from beneath the freshly-piled earth, and the _skritch_-_skritch_ of nails scraping on wood. _**Bella, **_I called, _**My pet, it works better if you just punch straight through. **_A second after I spoke to her, I heard a crunch of splintering wood, and the earth over her coffin depressed a little. She was through.

_**Help me, Edward.**_

_**You wanted to be a vampire, show me you deserve it by climbing out yourself.**_

It took her a few minutes, but she finally clawed her way up through the grave dirt. When she had cleared up to her waist, I gave her a hand to get the rest of the way out.

She stood for a moment, looking at her body in the moonlight, feeling her skin and her face with her hands, touching her new teeth with her tongue.

"Is it always like this?" she asked, twirling around and flaring her burial dress around her legs. She moved her hands up and down her body, essentially feeling herself up.

"No," I said, stepping forward to take her in my arms. At that moment a man stumbled by the cemetery, about half a mile away. We both turned to look. "Sometimes it's even better." I watched Bella as her pupils dilated, her eyes became black, and her focus narrowed in on the man lurching by. She had been dead for days now, and she was hungry. I whispered in her ear, "Go for it, my pet."

She darted away-and promptly stuck her foot in a gopher hole, doing a face-plant and probably eating dirt. I struggled not to laugh, or do anything that might make her angry at me. She was a newborn, a hungry one at that; I didn't need her pissed off at me.

I watched as she circled around the man, deciding how to go about feeding off him. She finally went with the direct approach and tackled him from the side. He didn't stand a chance. Within two seconds she had her fangs in him, draining him of his lifeblood. She finished and looked up at me, running her tongue over her lips. God, she was beautiful there in the moonlight, teeth tinted red with the blood of her first victim.

She raced back over to me. "Did I do good?"

"You did better than well. You did excellent. C'mere." I held out my hands to her, and she jumped at me, embracing me with her arms and wrapping her legs around my waist. She kissed me full on the mouth, and I didn't hold back anything this time, I kissed her right back. She tasted of freesia, and of the blood she had just consumed. The combination nearly drove me wild with need, and I kissed her more fiercely than before. She responded enthusiastically, thrusting her arms into my shirt and popping buttons, roughly running her hands down my back, raking it with her nails. She groaned in disappointment when I released her mouth, and gasped when I bit her neck. She smiled a challenge at me and bit mine right back. I couldn't help but cry out at the intense feeling that generated.

"I want you inside me, now," she gasped out.

"What a coincidence; so do I," I practically growled, and threw her to the ground, pouncing on her. She tugged urgently on my suit pants, trying to free the rest of me. I quite happily obliged, baring my entire body to Bella whoever the hell else wanted to see, I didn't care.

Then I impaled her with my alabaster obelisk, and she screamed in ecstasy, loud enough to wake the dead (almost).

Her shrieking laughter and my grunts of pleasure filled the restive cemetery with sound, almost until dawn.

"Tell me you want me, Bella."

"I want you, Edward."

"Tell me you need me."

"I need you, Edward."

"Say you'll never leave me."

"I'll never, ever leave you."

Her words filled me with intense, sadistic pleasure. With those words, she sealed her fate. Her everything belonged to me, I was the main object of her affection and her desire, and now she could never escape me, even if she should want to, later on.

She was, "unconditionally and irrevocably," _**mine**_.

...(change to 3rd person POV)...

They weren't alone in the cemetery, though neither knew that. A watcher was standing under a copse of trees near the edge of the graveyard, smoking a clove cigarette and watching the young'uns play, with a tolerant smile on his face. When he heard those symbolic words, his smile grew wider, and it wasn't what one would call 'nice.'

"And so another member is drawn into the fold," murmured Carlisle, and he turned and walked down the street in the predawn darkness, whistling a jaunty tune.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Ending B: In Which We Have Only Just Begun**

I rushed over to where Bella lay, prone, weak, and fading.

"Bella!" I grabbed her shoulders and shook her a little. "Bella, can you hear me? Can you understand?"

I felt a hand on my shoulder. "It's too late, Edward," Carlisle said. "She's already gone."

Panic set in. "You mean she's-"

"Of course not. Humans are more resilient than you think." He went over and began applying first-aid to her battered body. "She's unconscious, though; I don't think anything you try to say to her-in any medium-will get through to her conscious mind." He set her leg and Bella moaned, even unconscious.

"So she'll survive?"

"Yes, as long as we can get her to a hospital." He gestured down at her. "Pick her up and get her out of here. We have some evidence to destroy."

I looked around, and noticed Jasper and Emmett carrying in cans of gasoline and other extremely flammable substances. I got to carry the injured girl. _Damn it! I never get to do anything fun!_

Carlisle looked me in the eyes. "Patience, Edward. Sometimes these things take time. It's just going to take longer than we hoped, that's all. Dealing with disappointments like these are something you learn to do after you've lived as long as I have."

_Great._

_... ... ..._

The four of us "kids" lounged on the roof of the Phoenix hospital, waiting around for word on Bella's condition.

"This day completely sucked!" said Alice. "First I had to babysit little miss self-sacrifice-ooh-I'm-so-clever-watch-me-outsmart-a-vampire, then I miss out on the whole fight. I didn't even get to pull the Wish Vampire!" She pouted.

I sulked. "Believe me, you did **not **get the raw end of the deal today," I objected. "I got beat up by James, manhandled and slapped around by Carlisle, saved the girl, so to speak, but _still _didn't _get _the girl."

"At least _you _had a decent battle cry," said Emmett.

Jasper sniffed loudly and turned his head away. "There is nothing wrong with my battle cry. I maintain it is honoring a beloved pet."

"Whatever _Spazzper_, it's still lame," Emmett mocked.

"I think you'll be wearing that name for a long time, _Spazzper_," I teased.

Jasper got sulky and deliberately turned his back on us. Alice sidled up to him. "Y'know, if you wanted some that bad, you didn't have to beg for it so loudly," she said suggestively. "You know I'm always up for a good time."

A smile stole across Jasper's face. He looked over and Emmett and me. "Uh, I'll catch you guys later; we're gonna...find an empty room somewhere." He and Alice took off.

Emmett looked at me. "Hey, what's the creepiest place for them to get it on?"

I thought for a moment. "A bathroom?"

"A public bathroom."

"A public _handicapped _bathroom."

"Vacant bed in an occupied room!"

"The cafeteria!"

"The MEAT LOCKER!"

"So they can _both _get their meat!"

Then we were laughing uncontrollably; I mean, possibly died laughing if we weren't already dead.

Later Carlisle called me inside; Bella was awake. And she was sulking. As soon as I walked in I found out why.

"Edward, I'm going to die," Bella announced.

_Oh, what an over-dramatic princess. _"Really, Bella. You'll be out of here in a few days. Two weeks, tops."

"I don't mean now, but someday, as I am now, I will die. I get closer all the time. I'm going to get _old_."

_Vain, are we? Yes we are! _"And you want me to change you."

She brightened. "Would you?"

"No. You don't know what you're asking, what it means to be what I am." Yeah, I was beating around the bush, but I couldn't tell her the real reason why: because she was no longer at death's door, and might wake up a proverbial "free agent." The whole point of this exercise was for her to be bound to me by the end, and that probably wouldn't happen right now. At least, the odds were slim.

"Then stay with me, " she begged.

"As long as you want me to." _And maybe when you don't._

The nurse came then, to administer another dose of painkillers. Bella drifted off to sleep, and I made plans. How to pay this bitch back for all the trouble she put me through. _I went through all that, then she had the audacity to fall unconscious, right when I would have turned her? Who does she think she is?_ Then it came to me. _What does Bella hate the most? Crowds, functions, and doing what is expected of her. What could be more perfect than Prom? A fancy school function where everyone dresses to the nines, simply _everyone _attends, and she can see all her "friends" from school. Ruin my opportunity, will she? We'll see how she likes Prom!_

My thoughts suddenly halted. That sounded wrong on so many levels. Then again, nothing was going as expected in what might be called my "wooing" of Bella Swan.

Oh, well. How did that phrase go? _If at first you don't succeed_...

"Play time again," Carlisle called.

_Oh, hell..._

**Three updates in three days...that has to be some kind of record or something. I just wanted to get this done, I didn't want to look at that book anymore. I think I'm happy with how this turned out, though.**

**That poor boy, I put him through so much. He just can't seem to win, although I guess in the first ending he did. And Carlisle! See who Edward learned his stalking skills from?**

**I'm getting to love these characters. They are SO BAD! How they SHOULD be, though. I really struggled to find an ending for Ending B. There always seemed to be something more that should happen. And then Carlisle had to say his piece, and it was over.  
**

**What does it say about Carlisle that he always seems to get the last word in? He's CREEPY! And you all love him for it, just admit it. I do too.**

**In case you were wondering the "obelisk" idea came from "literaryridealongs(dot)wordpress(dot)com." They are a couple of people reading through Twilight chapter-by-chapter. One does summary with some snarking, the other does commentary with lots and lots of snark. Fun read! Recommend it highly.  
**

**Finally, I'd like to give a heart-felt shout-out to all my regular reviewers: Simply Ali, Tori Scanga, Thriving on Eternal Chaos, GeeNeeMeanie, cullen-gal1983, 0Rii, and jacobwllfuxulikeAnanimal. Thank you so much! Without you all, I might have just given up on this project.**

**Separate thanks to anyone else who has ever dropped me a line or reviewed my story. Thank you!  
**

**REVIEW PLEASE!!  
**


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